The Ubuntu family has been experiencing many problems in recent months. Last October, Ubuntu Unity failed to release version 25.10, but that was just the beginning. Kubuntu almost didn't reach LTS status for version 26.04, but Unity and Kylin also failed to achieve it. To make matters worse, all indications are that Ubuntu MATE 26.04 It will not release an ISO, and the main reason is that its leader, Martin Wimpress left the project.
Things weren't looking good in October, when there was a release on October 25.10th, but no release notes. Then, at the end of March, Wimpress announced its decision, which it did just over three weeks before the launch. from Resolute Raccoon, and it seems the community hasn't had time to react. But the slow pace started earlier.
Ubuntu 26.04 will not release ISO
My first suspicion came when I looked at the Ubuntu cdimage and saw that the "resolve" and "26.04" sections had disappeared from the Ubuntu MATE section.
My second suspicion came to me when I looked at the Resolute Raccoon release noteswhere it listed 9 official flavors (10 including the main version, which isn't on that list because it's not a "flavor"). Ubuntu MATE wasn't listed, but the rest were, including Unity and Kylin, which aren't LTS releases for this 26.04 version.
Almost convinced that it wouldn't arrive, I looked in the Ubuntu Discourse, and there dicen that "It is not expected for new installations", or in other words, they do not expect to release an ISO of Ubuntu MATE 26.04:
«Ubuntu MATE 26.04 is not expected to be released for new installations, as the previous lead developer retired, but that was too late for newer developers to be able to reach the 26.04 release; a required milestone had already been missed.«.
One possibility is to upgrade from 25.10 to the development version 26.04 (sudo do-release-upgrade -d), which would update the system's base packages, specifically to what would be the Ubuntu MATE 26.04 beta.
Ubuntu MATE 26.04 won't be released, but there are developers interested in taking over the project. It's expected that by October the situation will have changed considerably and things will return to relative normality.