Canonical Details Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop Plans + Ongoing X11 Sunsetting Discussions

Tim Holmes-Mitra with Canonical has shared some roadmap highlights for the Ubuntu desktop with the in-development Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

In addition to work lower down the stack with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS set to enable frame pointers by default and experimenting with x86-64-v3 builds, higher up the stack they are also planning for desktop enhancements with this Long Term Support release.

Among the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS desktop plans are:

- The Linux-Flutter engine is being upgraded to use GTK4.

- Given the issue of malicious translations in Ubuntu 23.10, Canonical will be setting up their own self-hosted Weblate instance and ensure every language is gate-kept by a trusted translator.

- Continued work on their Flutter-based apps like the Ubuntu Firmware Updater.

- Plans to expose re-encryption for their hardware-backed full disk encryption solution.

- Various other security improvements like a new network section in the Security Center where they can enable a local stealth mode or easily toggle their firewall.

- GNOME 46 is the planned desktop version for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

- Canonical continues to have "ongoing discussions about sun setting X11" but for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, they will still be keepping 24.04 LTS around it seems: "In Ubuntu 24.04 LTS we’re not ready to make that leap. For this cycle, we’ve decided to audit the state of NVIDIA + Wayland to define the signals we want to see in order to make that call."

- Improvements around Snap updating.

- Implementing MFA support in SSH and building SSO-support into the desktop.

More details on the Ubuntu desktop plans for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS via the Ubuntu Discourse.