Apr 18, 2025 at 8:41 PM Ubuntu 25.04 Plucky Puffin launches with new kernel, GNOME 48, ARM64 support, and more
Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" has officially launched following its beta stage a few weeks ago. This version introduces the Linux 6.14 kernel and comes with GNOME 48, which includes triple buffering for better performance on lower-end systems.
A significant addition is the official ARM64 desktop ISO, aimed at VMs, ACPI + EFI platforms, and Snapdragon WoA devices, with initial support for the Snapdragon X Elite platform. The updated installer now supports autoinstall import via local file paths and offers an option to replace existing installations, alongside dual-boot improvements for systems with BitLocker-encrypted Windows partitions. Netplan updates include support for wpa-psk-sha256 Wi-Fi and improved DNS readiness.
Other notable features include the xdg-terminal-exec package, which allows Ctrl+Alt+T to open the terminal, and Papers replacing Evince as the default document viewer. Geolocation services powered by beaconDB are enabled by default, and AppArmor includes additional profiles for better application sandboxing. JPEG XL support is now standard, while NVIDIA Dynamic Boost comes enabled by default on compatible laptops.
The release also includes full support for Intel Core Ultra Xe2 iGPUs and Battlemage GPUs, with improved ray tracing via Intel Embree, and updates to the development stack like GCC 15, LLVM 20, Rust 1.84, along with APT 3.0 as the default DEB package manager. Ubuntu 25.04 is available in several flavors, including Desktop and Ubuntu Server, and is supported until January 2026, while Ubuntu 24.04 LTS remains the recommended long-term support version.
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Related news
External links
- Canonical Releases Ubuntu 25.04 Plucky PuffinCanonical • Official source
- Ubuntu 25.04 “Plucky Puffin” Is Now Available for Download, This Is What's New9to5Linux
- How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 25.04 'Plucky Puffin'OMG! Ubuntu
- Ubuntu 25.04 upgrades halted due to Kubuntu users getting a broken desktopGamingOnLinux
Qualcomm doesn't do much work theses days to upstream Snapdragon X Elite elite on Linux. I know too well that ARM is not as flexible as x86 (and that Linux has been built mainly for x86) and there is a lot of work on the APCI part but it's still not what Qualcomm has promised last year. And since Copilot PCs completely fail to force people to change their computer (even with W11 refusing to work on many PCs), it seems that mainline Snapdragon support won't be for this year. Still, kudos to Canonical and all communities that are offering *Ubuntu remakes.