A new year has started, and who knows what kind of innovations and improvements it holds for for Ubuntu, which remains the world’s most used desktop Linux operating system.

We get two new releases of Ubuntu each year, one in April and one in October. Plus, new point releases of the latest long-term support release rolling up bug fixes, app updates, and back-porting newer Linux kernels and GPU drivers.

So 2025 should be another golden year for Ubuntu, those of us using it, and the Linux and open-source community as a whole.

Changes to Ubuntu in 2024 span a wide spectrum, from palpable big gaming performance and new desktop apps through to bleeding-edge support for RISC-V, Wayland on NVIDIA, and a commendable Linux kernel cadence change.

Just maintaining that level of progress would be sweet – could it be even more substantive?

In the early part of 2025, we’ll start seeing bigger changes land in Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ development builds as the first beta build approaches. The final release in April will offer GNOME 48, Linux Kernel 6.14, and a few (as yet unannounced) surprises.

The Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS point in May will will bring plucky’s Linux kernel and graphics drivers to LTS users, and work will begin on Ubuntu 25.10 — the last chance to allow bigger and potentially disruptive changes to bed in ahead of next year’s Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

Both releases are sure to offer more features and improvements beyond the awesome things the respective GNOME updates offer.

We may see further improvements to the snap security story (i.e., Ubuntu’s Prompting Client), more changes made to the Flutter-based Ubuntu installer, perhaps even some long-standing UX tweaks to help Flutter apps look and behave better on Linux.

Ubuntu’s hardware support is sure to expand to cover more ARM-based laptops (now they’re becoming more performant and less niche/unusual thanks to Microsoft’s Co-Pilot+ PC push). And as more traditional-style RISC-V devices appear, those too!

What do you want to see?

We’ll learn a lot more about Ubuntu’s 2025 plans over the coming months, and as always, I’ll be bringing you coverage of all that here, on OMG! Ubuntu — the same way I have for the past 16 (!) years.

Let’s skip over the probable and consider the possible — what do you want to see Ubuntu do, add, change, alter or embrace support for this year? 

And customisation or configuration options you feel would give Ubuntu an edge? Tough technical tasks you’d like to see Canonical’s engineers tackle? Changes would think should land soon so they can ship in the next long-term support release?

Whatever your hopes, wants, or wishes for Ubuntu are, please share them down in the comments (or by replying to me on OMG! socials, e.g., Bluesky, Mastodon, et al if you use Firefox and can’t load the Disqus embed).

Btw, you rock!

Finally, I want to say a HUGE thank you to you for reading and commenting, and to those of you who share, comment, like, or link to OMG! articles elsewhere on the web, be it to help/inform others, or just spread the word on something cool – appreciated!

Also, a massive round of kudos to the kindly generous folks amongst you who buy me a ‘coffee’. Whether one off or regular, that money makes a world of difference to keeping this site online and me at my wonky IKEA desk, continuing to do what I love – writing about Linux!

I’m excited as we enter what is sure to be another epic year for Ubuntu and other distros.

There’ll be updates, fixes, developments, changes, new apps and desktop environment releases galore, and I know I’ll continue to marvel at the ingenuity and talent on show in the open-source community.

Happy New Year!