Those testing the daily builds or monthly snapshots of Ubuntu 26.04 may have noticed that the new video player, Showtime, is not included in the ‘extended selection’ even though it was announced as a replacement for Totem. This lack of inclusion raises questions, especially since Resources, a system monitor announced at the same time, has been present in the ISO for a while.
Despite the confusion, there is still hope for Showtime‘s debut. A recent update to its package included a notable change: it now depends on gstreamer1.0-plugins-extra rather than gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad. This update suggests that Showtime will no longer require dependencies that may have licensing or copyright issues, making it easier to include in the main ISO.
In addition to this package update, a request has been submitted to include Showtime in Ubuntu’s main repository, where packages that ship on the ISO must reside. Another task is underway to update the Ubuntu seed, which lists the packages forming the ISO, to replace Totem with Showtime. It seems Showtime is on track to be featured in the final stable release of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, scheduled for April 23, 2026.
For users currently on Ubuntu 25.10 or 26.04, Showtime can be installed immediately via the terminal by running sudo apt install showtime. Users on earlier versions of Ubuntu can also access Showtime from Flathub. Meanwhile, fans of Totem can rest assured that it will remain available in the resolute repositories for new installs and will not be removed from systems upgrading from 24.04 to 26.04.