A few days ago announced the launch of the long-awaited version of Ubuntu 25.04 codenamed "Plucky Puffin", which as an intermediate version, will have update support for nine months, but comes loaded with relevant changes for both desktop and server users, developers and Linux enthusiasts in general.
Ubuntu 25.04 “Plucky Puffin” incorporates GNOME 48, which adds important improvements, among which stands out the HDR support, the implementation of triple buffering to improve graphical fluidity, the introduction of stacked notifications and the arrival of new keyboard shortcuts global. The system configurator has also been expanded, while performance optimizations and memory consumption reductions have been applied.
Kernel 6.14: with improvements in performance and compatibility
Another new feature in Ubuntu 25.04 is the Linux kernel 6.14, which introduces important innovations in the system management and application supportAmong the most notable is the new programming system sched_ext, which allows developers to design process scheduling policies Using eBPF programs, it moves scheduling decisions into user space. This allows for fully functional, hot-swappable CPU schedulers written in any language or using any tool available outside the kernel, providing an unprecedented level of customization in Linux.
Another notable innovation is the inclusion of the NTSYNC driver, which emulates the synchronization primitives found in Windows NT. Thanks to this improvement, improved performance is expected for Windows games running through Wine or Proton (the compatibility layer used by Steam Play), reinforcing Ubuntu's role as an increasingly competitive platform for gamers.
Improvements to terminals, localization, and sound
Has enabled by default xdg-terminal-exec, facilitating the replacement of the terminal emulator invoked with Ctrl+Alt+T. Regarding geographic location, following the gradual disappearance of the Mozilla Location Service, Ubuntu now uses the BeaconDB database to determine locations based on Wi-Fi networks.
Another new feature is that the system startup sound is now disabled by default, providing a more discreet boot experience.
Improved and enhanced installer
El Ubuntu Desktop installer has been updated to offer more options. Now includes a replacement mode for existing Ubuntu installations and improvements to dual-boot support, allowing installations on encrypted partitions and on Windows BitLocker-shared disks, with new advanced partition configurations.
Changes to APT, ARM64 images, and initrd generation
Ubuntu 25.04 incorporates APT 3.0, which includes the Solver3 solution engine, new visual interfaces for dependencies, support for snapshots, and a complete overhaul of key management and digital signatures.
for systems ARM64, Ubuntu now distributes a single universal ISO imagel instead of device-specific builds, making it easier to install on Ampere workstations, Snapdragon laptops, and Macs with Apple Silicon.
Additionally, although optional for now, Dracut support is being introduced as a tool for generating initrd images. This transition, which will be default in Ubuntu 25.10, will address historical limitations of the current initramfs-tools-based system.
Better support for modern hardware and architectures
NVIDIA GPU support has been enhanced with the nvidia-powerd service enabled by default, enabling Dynamic Boost technology to balance power between the CPU and GPU. Additionally, the latest NVIDIA 570.x drivers are included.
Regarding Intel, full support is given to Xe2 GPUs and the new Battlemage graphics, drastically improving rendering performance, especially in ray tracing tasks.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- VA-API support has been improved with the new va-driver-all package, which facilitates video encoding and decoding acceleration on supported hardware.
- Changes to AppArmor to tighten restrictions on user namespace creation, while also expanding the number of protected applications.
- ADSys is also updated to automatically manage certificates from Active Directory, including corporate networks and VPNs.
- The system is being modernized by removing obsolete elements such as the /run/utmp file vulnerable to the Year 2038 issue, and progress is being made toward removing support for cgroup v1 and System V startup scripts in future versions.
- For versions targeting the Raspberry Pi, a camera stack based on libcamera 0.4 has been added, and network booting via nbd-client is enabled by default. Traditional utilities have been replaced by the modern raspi-utils.
- Replacing Evince as the default PDF viewer with Papers, a modernized fork of Evince written in GTK4 and Rust.
- Support for the new JPEG XL format in the base system, eliminating the need to install additional packages to handle it.
Download and get Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin"
For those interested in trying this version of Ubuntu 25.04, you can obtain the installation images from the following link