Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 It is now availableThis official flavor was the youngest member of the Ubuntu family for several years, but now it could be considered an adult or a veteran. They generally do things well, so much so that other flavors often ask for their help when they need to improve something in their own project. But speaking of their Resolute Raccoon release, they've introduced some big changes, and at least one of them won't please everyone equally.
Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 has made the leap to Budgie 10.10(.2), ​​a version of the graphical environment that It no longer supports X11 sessions by default.In Linux everything is possible, but it is recommended to use things as they are offered so that the experience is as faithful as possible to how it was designed.
Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 highlights
- Supported for 3 years, until April 2029.
- Linux 7.0.
- Budgie 10.10.2, which retains most of the new features of Resolute Raccoon.
- Firefox 149, which will be updated immediately to Firefox 150.
- LibreOffice 26.2.2, the February 2026 edition with two maintenance fixes.
- Python 3.14.4.
- GCC 15.2.
- Open JDK 25.
- gilbc 2.43.
- Table 26.0.
- systemd 259.5.
- APT 3.2.
- GCC 15.2.
- PipeWire 1.6.2.
- binutils 2.46.
- Blue Z 5.85.
- GStreamer 1.28.2.
As we mentioned, Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 has been upgraded to Budgie 10.10.2, and one of its new features is that it only supports Wayland. Tools such as screen sharing, screenshots, and other integrations use more modern Wayland-based versions, while Other X11 workflows will behave differently or simply not be availableFurthermore, Budgie now runs on labwc, a wlroots-based compositor focused on correctness and stability.
Continuing with the topic of Wayland, many components, widgets, and other elements work perfectly, such as the application menu, Clockworks, Fuzzy Clock, Kangaroo, Network Manager, Quicknote, recent apps, VisualSpace, DropBy, wswitcher, WeatherShow, and Showtime. However, others like budgie-carbon-tray-applet and budgie-pixel-saver-applet will not be supported in version 26.04 due to Wayland limitations.
The capture tool has improved allowing you to choose between full screen or a region, the ability to capture sound, start and stop controls, and recording for a specific time.
Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 has received tweaks to existing technologies, and now the Crystal Dock is enabled and configured after a clean install, the Top Bar has been remade for the 26.04 layer, the Favorites menu has been integrated directly into the application menu, Showtime appears as a Raven widget, and there are power options directly in the menu.
The login process is also different, now using SDDM (the one used in KDE environments).
Now available
Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 is now available from Canonical's cdimage and the button below. Updates from Ubuntu 25.10 will be enabled soon. Updates from 24.04 will be enabled later, coinciding with the release of 26.04.1.