Ubuntu 25.10 launches with GNOME 49, Linux kernel 6.17, TPM-backed encryption and more

Ubuntu 25.10 “Questing Quokka” arrives as a short-term release supported until July 2026, with a direct upgrade path to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS next April. The release introduces GNOME 49 as the default desktop, running exclusively on Wayland with NVIDIA drivers now supporting suspend and resume, featuring smoother animations, improved settings panels, and better accessibility options on lock and login screens. Nautilus adds a refreshed search with filters, a date picker, and better keyboard navigation. Loupe replaces Eye of GNOME as the image viewer, and Ptyxis takes over as the new GPU-accelerated terminal with tabs, remote connections, and a red header bar during elevated sessions.

System notifications are now less intrusive, showing updates through alerts and a tray icon instead of opening new windows. Security sees a major step forward with optional TPM-backed full disk encryption that allows automatic unlock through TPM 2.0 or passphrase, with recovery key management handled in the Security Center and Firmware Updater.

Under the hood, Ubuntu 25.10 adopts dracut for boot management, introduces Rust-based sudo-rs for safer privilege handling, and replaces GNU coreutils with rust-coreutils. It ships with Linux kernel 6.17, bringing better SSD durability, improved EXT4 performance, and wider compatibility across ARM64 and RISC-V systems. The inclusion of Mesa 25.2.3 further refines graphics performance with faster shader compilation, better AMD RDNA3 ray tracing, and full Vulkan 1.4 compliance for Arm Mali GPUs.