I'll try not to make too much of a fuss, but I tend to be an honest person who writes what I think, even if I soften it a bit. But let's start from the beginning: until further notice and if nothing changes, Ubuntu Unity 25.10 will not be released as stable.The header image is from the Beta version. During the time between that beta and the stable version, the Unity team encountered issues and decided not to release their version because it wasn't ready.
So it was explained On the 7th, two days before the official launch. In this other thread Ubuntu's Discourse even claims that there won't be a stable release at all, and that they'll skip this version. It's also explained that it's a delicate situation, although skipping a release wouldn't mean the official version would disappear. It would cease to be part of it if the next one is also skipped, especially considering that 26.04 will be an LTS.
Ubuntu Unity 25.10 is not coming, and the project is hanging by a thread.
Ubuntu Unity 25.04 users will be interested to know that they can upgrade to Ubuntu Unity 25.10 Beta with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d. Is this worth doing? The fact is that Unity 25.04 will end support in January, and the rumored Unity 26.04 will arrive in April. One option is to skip the update, go three months without support, and cross your fingers that Resolute Raccoon is actually released. Upgrading to Beta would extend support until July, but would be a non-final version.
Whoever takes a lot of space, the less he tightens up
In the Ubuntu Discourse, they side with the Unity team, at least the one closest to Canonical. Users see it differently, something I agree with. And there are quite a few of us who think Ubuntu Unity isn't maintained in the best way. Unity is a desktop that Canonical abandoned for not offering the best experience, but Rudra Saraswat decided to revive it. The reasons? Probably to become part of something bigger.
But Sarastwat also developed:
- ubuntued: Ubuntu for education.
- Free Web: alternative to Chrome OS.
- BlendOS: An immutable, declarative system that promises compatibility with different distributions.
- gamebuntu: software to enhance the gaming experience on Ubuntu.
- Ubuntu Unity version with Lomiri, the mobile version.
Of the above, UbuntuEd, Ubuntu Web, and the Lomiri version of Unity were abandoned. Gamebuntu hasn't received any updates in over three years, and there's been no news about BlendOS since mid-2024. During that time, the young developer also worked with Arch to bring Unity to the popular distro for advanced users.
It seems clear that there is a pattern, and that is what is worrying.
Will Ubuntu Unity 25.10 be the end of this flavor?
As we have explained, A version jump is not synonymous with disappearance, but it makes clear that the development pace isn't the best, that there are problems. It's a bit reminiscent of what happens with Ubuntu Sway, which, despite not being part of Canonical and with a limited team, releases beta and stable versions within weeks of each other. No one is going to say anything to a "Remix," but the fact that this happens in an official version isn't reassuring.
There's already an image of Ubuntu Unity 26.04 in the Ubuntu CDimage, but that doesn't really mean anything. Daily Builds are generated automatically, and just because there are updates in the Ubuntu CDimage doesn't mean humans are involved. In fact, there are "current" and "pending" images, but not the "manual" one, which, in theory, indicates human activity.
We'll have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks. Seeing a manual ISO in the Daily Builds section would be a good sign. If that doesn't happen, we might start to think badly. The same could happen in a month, when the first snapshot should be released. Otherwise, I think we should start to think that the Ubuntu family will drop to 10 components.