Canonical unveiled the beta version of the forthcoming Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) operating system today, initiating public testing prior to the final launch on April 25th, 2024.
The beta is released with just a fortnight remaining before the stable release of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, providing an opportunity for users to have an early preview of the final version’s features. The Ubuntu 24.04 LTS beta is equipped with the newest GNOME 46 desktop environment and is powered by the Linux kernel 6.8.
Major features of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS includes an improved desktop installer offering support for accessibility features, a fresh option to import autoinstall configurations for templated custom provisioning, along with new default installation options, specifically Default selection (originally Minimal) and Extended selection (formerly Normal).
Furthermore, the Ubuntu Desktop Installer currently supports guided (unencrypted) ZFS installations, in addition to the encrypted ZFS installation option. Both these options are still considered experimental in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS also launches with the completely new graphical firmware update tool, Firmware Updater. Included out of the box is support for Raspberry Pi 5, the cutting-edge network management tool Netplan 1.0, and Mozilla Thunderbird standardised as a Snap.
Other key changes involve the “Year 2038” compatibility for the ARMhf architecture, the increase of vm.max_map_count to 1048576 for improved gaming, patches for the recent XZ backdoor, security-enhancement updates, and automatic enrolment for ADSys Active Directory Certificates.
Additionally, the Ubuntu App Center received a host of fresh features and upgrades for superior package administration. Apt priority has been applied to the “proposed” repository in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, aiming to evade broken installations when users install potentially unstable updates from said repository.
Under the hood, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS comes with an updated toolchain that includes GCC 14, GNU Binutils 2.42, GNU C Library (Glibc) 2.39, Java 21 as default, Python 3.12 as the default Python version, PHP 8.3, Ruby 3.2, LLVM 18 as default, and Go 1.22 as default.
If you want to take Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) for a test drive, you can download the beta version right now from the official website. However, please keep in mind that this is a pre-release version and it’s not recommended for use in production environments.
Of course, all the official Ubuntu flavors have been promoted to the beta channel as well, including Kubuntu (now features the Calamares installer), Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Cinnamon, Ubuntu MATE, and Ubuntu Kylin, all of which you can download from here.
Last updated 3 hours ago