Ubuntu 26.04 to Have Showtime Video Player & Resources System Monitor as Default

The Ubuntu Desktop team announced the road-map for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS today, introducing two new default applications!

As you may know, Ubuntu introduced some new default apps in recent releases, e.g., Security Center to manage snap app permissions, the container-focused Ptyxis terminal emulator, Papers document viewer, and Loupe image viewer.

According to the road-map, 2 new default applications will be made into the next Ubuntu 26.04 Long Term Support (LTS) release along with GNOME 50.

They are:

Showtime video player to replace the old Totem.
Resources system monitor and task manager to replace Gnome System Monitor.

Showtime Video Player

Showtime is the core video player for GNOME since version 49, meaning it’s also default in Fedora 43, Debian Forky, Arch etc Linux Distribution with vanilla Gnome Desktop environment.

As you see via the screenshot above, it features a distraction-free viewing experience with minimal interface clutter. Controls (e.g., play/pause, seek-bar, and title-buttons) fade away automatically during playback so the screen is clean.

And, it supports essential features such as volume and playback speed control, rotate video, take screenshot, and multiple audio and subtitle tracks.

The player has been made into Ubuntu system repository since Ubuntu 25.04, while Ubuntu 24.04 and earlier may install it through Flatpak package which runs in sandbox environment.

To install Showtime flatpak package, simply open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the 2 commands below one by one.

Install flatpak daemon:
```
sudo apt install flatpak
```

Install showtime package:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gnome.Showtime.flatpakref

Tip: If this is the first time you install a flatpak package, then you may need a log out and back in to make app icon visible.

Resources system monitor and task manager

Resources is a free open-source Rust written application that uses GTK4 + LibAdwaita to provide a modern UI for monitoring system processes and resources.

As you see, it supports monitoring running apps and processes, with CPU, GPU, Memory usage and Drive read/write data on per app/process basis, and actions to end, kill, halt, or continue app/process.

And, it monitors the real-time usage of your system resources, such as CPU, GPU, Memory, Drive, and Network, in graphs along with basic info of your hardware properties.

As well, it shows the percentage of battery and its health, design capacity, charge circles, manufacturer, and the module name, etc information. For more about Resources, go to its project page.

Same to Showtime, all current Ubuntu releases can install Resources through Flatpak package, by running the 2 commands below one by one.

sudo apt install flatpak

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/net.nokyan.Resources.flatpakref

Besides new default applications, Ubuntu 26.04 will also improve the performance and stability for Wayland on NVIDIA, add more controls for the disk encryption, such as ability add/remove PIN/passphrase after installation, and graphical option to re-encrypt a disk.

It’s also going to unify the package management experience by making App Center the single place to handle all applications, deprecate Software Properties (Software & Updates), and more. See the discourse page for details.