Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Codenamed The Focal Fossa, Arriving On 23 April

With Ubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" releasing tomorrow (17 October), development is about to kick-off for the next Ubuntu development cycle under the codename Focal Fossa.

Ubuntu has already been through "FF" before with the Feisty Fawn (Ubuntu 7.04) while this time around the codename is the Focal Fossa. A fossa is considered a relative of the mongoose and found in areas around Madagascar. The size of a fossa is comparable to a small cougar, according to Wikipedia.

Making the Focal Fossa particularly exciting is that Ubuntu 20.04 will be a Long-Term Support (LTS) release. With Ubuntu 20.04 LTS expect GNOME 3.36 as the default desktop, the X.Org based session to still remain the default, Linux 5.5 + GCC 9 + Mesa 20.0 powering the stack, and continued work on their newly-enabled ZFS root file-system support on the desktop. With Ubuntu 20.04 being an LTS release popular in the enterprise, also expect to find the very latest enterprise packages and the likes of PHP 7.4.

The Ubuntu 20.04 LTS release schedule confirming the Focal Fossa codename pegs the official release as 23 April. The Ubuntu 20.04 LTS feature freeze is penned in for 27 February, the UI freeze for 19 March, and the release candidate for 16 April.