Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat is Available to Download

Ubuntu 24.04, code-name Noble Numbat, is finally released!

It’s a new Long Term Support (LTS) release with 5 years of support until 2029, and another 7 years of support through ‘Ubuntu Pro’ (can be enabled in welcome or Software & Updates dialog).

Meaning users of Ubuntu 24.04 can keep receiving security updates until 2036!

Ubuntu 24.04 features Linux Kernel 6.8, and it will keep updating to new kernel series in next point releases. The new kernel introduced Intel Shadow Stack, and stable Intel Meteor Lake graphics support. KVM now allows up to 4096 vCPUs. And, there are many other new features as well as hardware support, see this page for details.

The Ubuntu Desktop now has a new installer, that features automatic installation and TPM-backed full disk encryption. The “Default selection” mode is now minimal installation, that excludes many default apps, though a full installation (Extended selection) is also available for choice.

New Installer, default to Minimal install

The default desktop environment is now GNOME 46, along with following default app changes:

New Welcome dialog to easily enable “Ubuntu Pro”.
New Camera app to replace Cheese.
Use Thunderbird Snap instead of classic Deb package.
New App Center to replace Ubuntu Software.
New Firmware Updater app.
NetworkManager now uses Netplan as its default settings-storage backend.
Reduce the priority of proposed pocket from 500 to 100.

There are as well many GNOME specific changes, such as Global search in Files (aka Nautilus), Microsoft OneDrive support in Online Account, and Remote Login via RDP.

For users of Ubuntu 22.04, here’s a feature overview and changes between the 2 LTS releases.

New App Center in Ubuntu 24.04

Other changes include:

Fix Year 2038 problem for arm64.
Toolkit updates: Python 3.12, GCC 14, binutils 2.42, glibc 2.39, OpenJDK 21, LLVM 18, Rust 1.75, .NET 8, and Golang 1.22.
TLS 1.0, 1.1 and DTLS 1.0 forcefully disabled
PPTP removed from system repository due to security issue.
Default games no longer pre-installed.
Deprecate 1024-bit RSA keys.
SSH now starts systemd socket by default instead of service.
Python now prefer virtual environment for 3rd party packages.
Server package updates, including Apache2 2.4.58, Containerd 1.7.12, Django 4.2.11, Docker 24.0.7, Dovecot 2.3.21, exim4 4.97, HAProxy 2.8.5, libvirt 10.0.0, NET SNMP 5.9.4, Nginx 1.24, PHP 8.3.3, PostgreSQL 16.2, QEMU 8.2.1, Ruby 3.2, Squid 6.6, and more.

For more changes about Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, see the official release note.