Ubuntu 25.10 arrives on October 9th, and this ‘Questing Quokka’ doesn’t travel light — its knapsack is filled with new features.
There are foundational changes that boost the distro’s boot processes, Rust-ification and modernisation of core system components, through to new desktop apps, features and capabilities. Yup, there’s a lot to love in the latest Ubuntu release.
The changes highlighted below will be available to everyone from 9 October 2025, which is when Ubuntu 25.10 is officially released. A few tweaks will only apply on a fresh install, and not an in-place upgrade from earlier versions, so keep that in mind.
No doubt you’re keen to learn more, so read on to discover what makes Questing Quokka such a quality release.
GNOME 49 Desktop
GNOME 49: Key Changes & Features
Many of Ubuntu 25.10’s new features arrive courtesy of GNOME 49, the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment released in September.
A glut of genuinely useful improvements are provided by this uplift, and most help to improve the experience of using Ubuntu day-to-day, whatever you use it for.
For a complete breakdown of the desktop environment changes, see our GNOME 49 features overview, or read on for specific highlights.
File Manager refresh
Nautilus, the file manager, sees some neat changes. There’s a redesigned search popover that uses pill-shaped buttons to make it easier to see available each options, and a new calendar widget to make setting a search timeframe easier.
When you cut a file to move it elsewhere, the file type icon is now shown with a dashed border around it to make it easier to spot what file was actioned. When shown, hidden files and folder icons have slight transparency to delineate them from normal content.
A new ctrl + . keyboard shortcut lets you open the current folder in the default terminal app (which for 25.10, is Ptyxis – see further down).
Other welcome additions include the ability to copy network addresses directly from the network panel, incremental loading of files in MTP-backed folders (no more frozen file manager when browsing your phone), and sidebar mounts now sorted by device name.
New Lock & Login screen controls
If you’re playing MPRIS-compatible media on Ubuntu 25.10 and the screen locks, you can see what’s playing and control playback on the lock screen directly, without needing to first unlock your system – which is handy.
GNOME 49 adds an accessibility menu to the login screen, located in the lower-right corner. This puts assistive (and useful) features, like the on-screen keyboard, screen reader and screen magnification in easy reach and they can used before logging in.
Do Not Disturb toggle moved
Annoyed by notifications? GNOME 49 moves the Do Not Disturb toggle from the notification/calendar applet to the Quick Settings menu, which is a less-disconnected location for it; it sits alongside other system controls, where you’d expect to find it.
If an external HDR-capable monitor is attached, you can adjust the brightness of each display separately through Quick Settings. And when you adjust brightness (with keyboard or the slider), it now steps up and down in 5% increments, for more precise control.
Settings tweaks
The Settings > Display panel now fits on smaller resolution screens, which solves the annoying issue where you’d switch to a lower resolution only to find the display settings panel was too large to fit on screen so you could switch back to a higher resolution!
Power users may notice that Startup Applications is no longer included in Ubuntu 25.10. If you need to set autostart apps, head to the Settings > Applications panel, pick the app you want to open on login, and slide the ‘autostart’ toggle to ‘on’.
Annoyingly, there is no GUI way to add a script or run a custom command on login (features the old utility offered), so that is something to keep that in mind for anyone upgrading from an earlier release where such things are configured.
Smoother UI animations
GNOME Shell 49 adds new ‘scale’ animations as notifications and popovers appear on screen. UI elements like the Quick Settings menu and calendar/notification applet use ‘quad’ animations which are perceptibly more fluid than the old ones.
Ubuntu Desktop Changes
New default applications
Ubuntu 25.10 ships with new terminal and image viewer apps.
Ptyxis replaces GNOME Terminal (don’t worry about learning how to type the name, much less pronounce it as it’s still referred to as Terminal through the desktop).
A featured and performance-focused alternative to GNOME Terminal, Ptyxis offers GPU-accelerated rendering, tab overview, container and remote connection support, highly configurable (switchable) profiles. Oh, and a cool red header bar when sudo is invoked.
Loupe is now Ubuntu’s default image viewer, replacing Eye of GNOME. This GTK4/libadwaita app is powered by Glycin, a modern image rendering library, has features its predecessor didn’t, like multi-touch gestures, and a UI show more image, fewer buttons.
Neither app is new to the Linux world, but both are new to Ubuntu’s default software set. Those who prefer the old apps needn’t fret as both remain available to install from the repos, and can be set as default handlers from the Settings app.
Update notifier is less naggy
Ever been typing away when Update Manager suddenly opens, stealing input focus from what you were doing? If it irked you, you’ll be pleased to know update nags are less interruptive in Ubuntu 25.10.
When updates are available, a desktop notification appears with options to open Update Manager to look over the pending changes or go and ahead and install them.
If you miss the notification, adds an applet to the system tray where you the number of updates available is viewable, along with options to install now, or show updates. You can also disable desktop notifications from the applet.
Updates are important, but this change makes letting you know about them less aggressive. Once Wayland’s window activation protocols mature and desktop environments adapt to using them properly, a different tack will be considered.
Desktop Icons refined
Ubuntu’s Desktop Icons extension has been kitted out with improved keyboard navigation.
You can multi-select icons on your desktop by holding Shift and using arrow keys, select and deselect files using Ctrl + Space, jump to the top-left icon with Home, or skip to the bottom-right with End.
Plus, those using a screen reader will appreciate that the correct file is announced just the once during interactions with shortcuts on the desktop space itself, no endless repetition!
Theming & design
Ubuntu’s Yaru icon set adds some new icons (including a nicer trash can), whilst its GNOME Shell theme undergoes some subtle polish to make border radii more consistent — including on the Ubuntu Dock — bump contrast, and adjust background colour choices.
A new spinner has been added. It resolves a number of visual-glitch issues reported with the old spinner, and looks smoother (and generally less distracting) in motion during loading operations. You’ll spot it most often each time you boot up as it’s shown on the boot screen:
With the switch to Ptyxis as default terminal, Ubuntu 25.10 drops the size of its UI monospace font (Ubuntu Sans Mono) from 13pt to 11pt to match the user interface font size. It seems 11pt ‘fits’ the new terminal better as 13pt looked a overly big.
Finally, there’s a new default wallpaper plus a number of other wallpapers, the majority featuring various renditions of the release mascot (a quokka).
TPM-backed full disk encryption
With Ubuntu 25.10, TPM‑backed full‑disk encryption becomes a first‑class (if still experimental) option in the installer. On systems with a compatible TPM 2 chip and secure boot detected, you can choose to have the disk unlocked automatically using TPM or with an additional passphrase.
The installer itself is also clearer about why/when TPM cannot be used, and setup emphasises the important of generating a recovery key (which you’ll need if TPM state changes or is unavailable).
In addition, the new Security Center includes recovery key features in the desktop Security Center app, while the Firmware Updater app will mention if any updates will affect TPM state.
While earlier versions of Ubuntu support full disk-encryption using a LUKS passphrase it’s not as fluid as using encryption keys tied to a Trusted Platform Module (i.e., at a hardware level and the way disk encryption works on most major desktop operating systems.
Apt 3.1 (with ‘history’ easter egg)
Ubuntu 25.10 offers apt 3.1, a new version of the the venerable package manager. It uses a new package solver that’s been in the works for a while (with apt why and apt why-not commands for finding out why a package is or isn’t installed).
There are also new include/exclude options to limit packages used from a repository.
Ubuntu also enables the new apt history feature as an “easter egg” (meaning it’s not officially tested, documented or listed in apt’s --help), with the history-info and history-list features available.
There’ll be more commands in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, including history-undo, history-redo, and history-rollback — so system admins (and generally obsessive package persons among you) can look forward to that!
No More GNOME on Xorg/X11
Ubuntu 25.10 does not include an X11/Xorg session for the GNOME desktop. Controversial to some, but it was not strictly Ubuntu’s decision to drop it, but GNOME’s, as the GNOME 49 release disables X11 sessions by default (and will remove code entirely in GNOME 50).
However, it’s important to understand what this means, and what it doesn’t:
- You can still run X11 apps on Ubuntu as XWayland is preinstalled
- Xorg server packages remain in the repos so you can install them
- Other desktops are unaffected i.e., Xfce, MATE, etc all still work on X11
- Older releases are unaffected; Ubuntu 24.04 LTS supports GNOME on Xorg
What you can’t do in Ubuntu 25.10 is run GNOME Shell on X11/Xorg.
Does it matter? Not hugely. For the vast majority of users with modern hardware, this won’t be noticeable. Wayland has been Ubuntu’s default since 2021, and NVIDIA users have been defaulting to Wayland since 24.10.
If you rely on specific software or workflows that absolutely require an X11 session (not just X11 apps, but the full X11 session), you can stick with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (supported through 2029), or use an Ubuntu flavour with a different desktop environment.
Mutter’s marvellous modernisations
The window manager Mutter sees some major advances in GNOME 49, including more HDR work, colour profile bumps (including support for ICC profiles), and handling 10/12/16 bit software decoding formats.
A change to the way fractional scaling values are calculated should offer sharper rendering of text and app interfaces on high-resolution displays. Now using ‘exact quotients’, you’ll see less-common values such as 133% offered when fractional scaling is enabled.
Other changes in Mutter 49 see touchpad acceleration profiles applied on startup, separating trackpoint speed settings from mouse speed settings, adding Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) cursor support and implementing the pointer warp protocol.
Foundational Changes
Dracut
Ubuntu 25.10 adopts Dracut as its default initial RAM filesystem (initramfs) generator. A totally invisible change that hooks into the update-initramfs command. While Dracut doesn’t make boot speeds faster per se, it does make Ubuntu’s boot process safer and more predictable.
New sudo-rs
There’s one Linux command I’d bet every Linux user knows: sudo — in Ubuntu 25.10, that command is now provided by sudo-rs, a Rust-based implementation that improves memory safety for such a critical command. For most users, this change will be invisible.
While sudo-rs is not 100% compatible with the original sudo implementation (by design), the vast majority of use cases are supported. If you’re running complex configurations or hit edge cases, the original sudo utility is available in 25.10 (and will be in 26.04 LTS).
rust-coreutils by default
The fundamental tools you access from the command line, tools like ls, cp, mv, and cat are now provided by the rust-coreutils package (not gnu-coreutils), providing all of the the memory safety benefits inherent to being built in Rust.
Ubuntu 25.10 ships with rust-coreutils 0.2.2, which resolves a number of performance issues that were highlighted (and reported on) during this development cycle. For instance, the base64 utility has been optimised and now outperforms the GNU version.
There are caveats. Because rust-coreutils isn’t yet fully compatible with every edge case of the GNU utilities, Ubuntu continues to offers the old version alongside the Rust implementations. You can switch between them as needed.
Chrony with NTS by Default
Ubuntu 25.10 uses Chrony as its default time synchronisation daemon, backed by Network Time Security (NTS). The aim? To address a fundamental weakness in the Network Time Protocol (NTP): authentication (the lack of it).
NTP doesn’t verify its time source, so a malicious time server could (in theory) feed your system incorrect values. Since accurate time is critical for ‘cryptographic’ operations, like validating website certificates, it’s a vulnerability that matters.
As I covered earlier in the year, this change will only apply to new install. If you’re upgrading from Ubuntu 25.04, you’ll remain on systemd-timesyncd (though you can manually switch if desired).
A/B booting on Raspberry Pi
If you run Ubuntu on a Raspberry Pi, you’ll benefit from a new A/B booting process (and a smaller install footprint). The boot change improves the reliability of system updates by maintaining two bootable system images, so you can fall back to a working state if an update causes issues.
Linux Kernel 6.17
Linux 6.17 Brings Big Improvements
Ubuntu 25.10 ships with Linux kernel 6.17, the most recent stable release (thanks to a change to the way Canonical selects kernels for inclusion).
There’s better support for hardware, security tightening, performance gains in the EXT4 filesystem Ubuntu uses, and a change in how data is written (or in this case, not written) to SSDs to reduce wear.
I cover those, and other key changes in Linux 6.17 separately — so to swot up on why AMD SmartMux support is sweet, Attack Vector Controls are ace, and why priority-inversion tweaks will mean more responsive desktop apps, check that out!
Mesa 25.2
Ubuntu 25.10 ships with Mesa 25.2.3, which is the latest stable series branch of the open source graphics drivers (it will be back-ported to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS users early next year).
Among the changes in the Mesa 25.2.x series is faster shader compile times in the open-source NVIDIA Vulkan driver (NVK), RADV ray tracing optimisations on RDNA3 and newer AMD GPUs, and Vulkan 1.4 compliance in PanVK diver used for Arm Mali GPUs.
Bug fixes and other tweaks are bundled up to improve gameplay titles like Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, DOTA 2 and Ghost of Tsushima.
RISC-V profile requirements raised
Tech tinkers with RISC-V devices will not able to install or upgrade to this version, as Ubuntu 25.10 raises its RISC-V profile requirements to RVA23. There is no readily-available hardware available that offers it (but there is QEMU for testing).
It may sound counterintuitive to only support RVA23-capable hardware, but it’s worth it: the capabilities RVA23 brings are set to put RISC-V computing on a competitive footing with other CPU architectures, like ARM and Intel.
Of course,Ubuntu 24.04 LTS continues to support existing RISC-V hardware, and that release will keep getting critical updates for many years to come. The future of RISC-V is RVA23, and so is the future of Ubuntu on RISC-V.
Assorted smaller changes
A clutch of smaller changes in Ubuntu 25.10:
- Ubuntu Insights added as a CLI tool for Ubuntu Pro
- Deprecated the
linux-modules-extrapackage - Secure Boot support via Stubble for newer Snapdragon laptops
Foundations-wise, besides Linux kernel 6.17 which is covered further up this article, the following subsystems and libraries are standard in Ubuntu 25.10:
- systemd 257.9
- Mesa 25.2.3
- PipeWire 1.4.7
- BlueZ 5.83
- Gstreamer 1.26.6
- Power Profiles Daemon 0.30
- OpenSSL 3.5.3
Notable software versions available in 25.10 repos (note: some may minor updates over the coming months but these are the versions available at the time of release):
- LibreOffice 25.8.1
- Thunderbird 140 ESR (snap)
- GNOME Calendar 48.1
- Audacity 3.7.5
- Blender 4.3.2
- GIMP 3.0.4
- VLC 3.0.21
- MPV 0.40
- Celluloid 0.29
- yt-dlp 2025.09.23
- FFMPEG 7.1
- Krita 5.2.13
Plus more besides – if an app you regularly install from the Ubuntu repos has issued an update since last October, there’s a good chance it’s packaged up and present in the questing repos!
When is Ubuntu 25.10 released?
Ubuntu 25.10 is released on Thursday October 9th, 2025 and is supported with ongoing updates for 9 months (until July 2026). It will be possible to upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS in April, and that release is supported for 5 years (until 2030).
Where can I download Ubuntu 25.10?
You can download Ubuntu 25.10 desktop for Intel/AMD devices from the official Ubuntu website or get it get it direct from the Ubuntu release server (which is where the official website links to) from October 9 2025.
The Ubuntu 25.10 desktop ISO is over 6 GB in size (Fedora 43 Workstation, by comparison, is a mere 2.8 GB) so if you’re downloading on a limited or slow connection, keep that in mind.
If you need a different image, like the general ARM64 installer, Raspberry Pi image, or WSL image for Windows on ARM, head to the cdimage server and download it from there.
Can I upgrade to Ubuntu 25.10?
You can upgrade to Ubuntu 25.10 from Ubuntu 25.04 from 9 October 2025. A notification will appear to tell you when the upgrade is available, and offer you the option to upgrade right away, or in remind you again a few weeks later.
It is possible to upgrade to Ubuntu 25.04 before the official notification rolls out but it’s not recommended and requires using the command-line.
You can not upgrade directly from an earlier release, like Ubuntu 24.10 or 24.04 LTS – you’d need upgrade to the next in-series release first, then the next, until you end up on 25.10.
Ubuntu 25.10 is a solid release, and well worth the upgrade if you’re currently using Ubuntu 25.04.
I know that Ubuntu’s growing use of Rust in system components like sudo and coreutils might be seen as chasing trends, but it feels considered: memory safety issues have been a bug-bear of software development for decades, anything to move past it is welcome.
Add in the fact Ubuntu drops X11 support (though had little say in the matter given upstream made the decision), and I’m sure cynics will be looking at this release with a less enamoured glow.
But as a sure-footed step towards next year’s Long Term Support release (which the majority use), I’d say anyone new to Ubuntu should start here — it’s the freshest, most featured and faithful representation of where desktop Linux is at and what it can do.
GNOME 49 delivers a delightful desktop experience, Linux 6.17 and Mesa 25.2 provide performance improvements, TPM-backed disk encryption continues to mature, and the new default apps and lower-level changes feel like logical replacements.
That said, if you’re on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS there is no need to bust out the USB thumb stick and reinstall; all of the goodies here will be available to you next year, if you choose to upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
