A big Ubuntu news roundup - five stories in one email.

=== Ubuntu 26.10 "Stonking Stingray" is out ===
- Ships GNOME 51, Mesa 26.2, and the Linux 7.3 kernel (a release
candidate at launch - stable lands via updates).
- New drag-up window tiling layout picker, passkey and Entra ID
sign-in at the login screen, and TPM-backed full-disk encryption on
more machines.
- Core utilities (cp, mv, rm) are now Rust-based, dbus-broker replaces
dbus-daemon after 22 years, and there's a separate amd64v3 ISO for
newer CPUs.
- Supported for 9 months. Download: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
- Full rundown: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/10/ubuntu-2610-new-features

=== Secure Boot change in 26.10: check your /boot ===
- The signed GRUB build in 26.10 no longer reads /boot on Btrfs, XFS,
ZFS, LVM, LUKS, or software RAID (except RAID1) when Secure Boot is
on.
- /boot on ext4, FAT, and ISO9660 still works, and everything else
(LVM, ZFS, etc.) still works fine once booted - only the boot path is
affected.
- With Secure Boot off, GRUB keeps its full feature set. Most standard
installs are unaffected, but check custom /boot layouts before
upgrading.
- Details: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/10/ubuntu-2610-secure-boot-grub-change

=== App Center gains an Add-ons page ===
- 26.10's App Center now has an Add-ons page that installs restricted
media codecs (handy if you skipped that box in the installer or
installed offline).
- On supported hardware it also hosts the new Additional Drivers page
for NVIDIA GPUs, some wi-fi cards, and other select hardware -
replacing the dropped Software & Updates tool.
- Details: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/10/ubuntu-app-center-add-ons-media

=== Canonical mocks up an AI-powered Ubuntu launcher ===
- A Canonical engineer published "warty-prototype", a semi-interactive
mockup of a launcher with an on-device AI prompt box - find files, set
wallpaper and accent color, pick an app for a file type, build a
calendar itinerary from clipboard items.
- It's a design-discussion prototype, not a real launcher and not a
shipping commitment - but it shows where Canonical's AI thinking is
headed.
- Try the demo: sudo snap install warty-prototype --edge
- Details: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/10/ubuntu-ai-launcher-prototype

=== Ubuntu 27.04 is "Tenacious T-Rex" ===
- Next April's interim release gets Ubuntu's first-ever dinosaur
mascot (and first hyphenated animal) - following 26.10's Stonking
Stingray.
- Too early for a feature list, but expect GNOME 52, a new kernel, and
possibly a Rust-based time sync server.
- Details: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/10/ubuntu-2704-is-tenacious-t-rex

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Cochise Linux Users Group Mailing List - cochiselinux@wxyz For more information: https://cochiselinuxusergroup.org/ Discord: https://discord.gg/ym2hCH5FSk Mailing List Archive: https://www.freelists.org/archive/cochiselinux To unsubscribe: //www.freelists.org/list/cochiselinux