Hello World,

As you probably know, Canonical has released in April 2026 the latest version of its operating system.  So, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Long Term support) is available and marks one of the most ambitious long‑term support releases Canonical has shipped in years. It blends a polished GNOME 50 desktop, a cutting‑edge Linux 7.0 kernel, and a deeply refreshed server and cloud ecosystem. Whether you’re a developer, sysadmin, or everyday desktop user, this release brings meaningful improvements across the board. 

This release is promising and for an LTS introduces some interesting changes.  We have been testing the release with daily build image and we have seen here and there the changes implemented and make the operating system looking familiar but more polished as well…. 

Let’s have a quick look.  

Overview

There are a lot of information, reviews and posts about Ubuntu 26.04 and what’s new.. We do not want to repeat the same information and we will not go into details in this post.  We will look at some of the points that can impact us and more specifically our famous xrdp-installer script…. 

xRDP software support in Ubuntu 26.04

In the past, Remote Desktop solution was mainly provided by xRDP software.  Using our little xrdp-installer script, it was possible to easily install this additional software component in order to provide remote desktop services on a Linux machine.  However, major changes in the Gnome Desktop software makes xRDP unusable on Ubuntu 26.04. 

xRDP software is relying heavily on the X11 Display Server.  Gnome 49 has removed partially x11 package support and Gnome 50 (the one used in Ubuntu 26.04) has removed all the x11 packages.  Since Ubuntu is shipping with the latest version of Gnome Desktop and since the default display server is now Wayland, it become obvious that xRDP will not work against Ubuntu 26.04

However, Gnome Desktop has been provided an alternative called Gnome Remote Desktop. This is a valid alternative to xRDP package software.  It is not a one to one replacement but the solution offer the most important feature you would expect when you need to remote desktop against a Linux machine.   In a nutshell, Gnome RDP will  

• allow connections to headless systems
• allow connections even if no one is logged (i.e. Gnome Remote Desktop  is not Desktop Sharing feature) 
• sound redirection is working as expected
• clipboard support is present

As you can see, Gnome Remote Desktop can replace the xRDP software package and will allow you to remote connect to your Gnome Desktop. Gnome Remote Desktop is built-in and you do not need to install anything additional.  You still need to enable the feature and configure it.  Once done, you should be able to perform your remote connection.  Gnome Remote Desktop seems to improves with each iteration.  In Ubuntu 26.04,  Gnome Remote desktop can take advantage of the hardware acceleration and improved NVDIA support in order to improve drastically remote desktop performance… 

To see how to use Gnome Remote Desktop, have a quick look at this post 

Gnome Desktop 50

Each Ubuntu iteration is now shipping with new version of the Gnome Desktop.  Each Gnome Desktop releases provides refinement and improvements which make the desktop user’s experience smoother, responsive and more accessible.  Yaru Theme has been slight improved. we have new icons and slightly redesign folders.  Canonical has taken all the good and new thing from the Gnome Software packages and included them in their Operating System. 

There are a bunch of new applications that has been introduced in Ubuntu 26.04.  They really integrated well with the Gnome Desktop 50 solution.   

As an example, the new Resources app is a standout addition—finally giving users GPU, NPU, and hardware frequency monitoring in a clean GTK4 interface.  The tool is looking really good and feel at home within the Gnome desktop environment.   It looks like the Windows task manager as well and Windows users might be more comfortable with this layout…  

Security Center is also starting in Ubuntu 26.04.  You can enable Ubuntu Pro from this location.  An interesting addition is the disk encryption.  Security is becoming an important point in many organizations and being able to manage Disk encryption easily can help speed adoption of Ubuntu (or Linux in General) 

There is also a new movie player Apps called Showtime and replaces Totem.   Showtime apps looks really nice with its minimalist design. A new Document viewer is also shipping with this Release

There is also the new Terminal console made available in Ubuntu 26.04.   The software is probably a great replacement for the previous console apps.  However, we are missing the customization an transparency features of the previous version… We will need to see if there is a way to setup transparency settings… 

Ubuntu 26.04 releases a strong desktop interface that looks modern, appealing, refined, responsive…The subtle changes introduced are really visible and the first impression you get when using the new/updated Desktop interface feels really smooth…

Security Improvements

Canonical is making a bold move by integrating more and more rust based system and software components. Canonical has prioritized rewriting critical system components in Rust to prevent buffer overflows and memory corruption.  Ubuntu 26.04 takes full advantage of the Rust-for-Linux framework. By supporting kernel modules and drivers written in Rust, the OS reduces the risk of “kernel panics” and low-level exploits that typically occur in traditional C-based drivers.

TPM-backed full-disk encryption is now generally available in the Ubuntu installer. By tying encryption to TPM chip embedded hardware, disk encryption is bound to a specific device, significantly raising the bar for physical access attacks, while simultaneously improving user experience. The libraries managing the handshake between the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) and the OS are now built with Rust. This ensures that the recovery keys and encryption secrets are handled with much higher logic integrity during the boot process.

Final Notes

We could continue and describe all the new features and improvements that Ubuntu 26.04 brings.  

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS isn’t just another long-term support release—it’s a statement. Canonical is pushing the platform forward with stronger security, better hardware support, a cleaner desktop, and a modernized cloud and virtualization stack. It’s a release that feels ready for the next decade of Linux computing.  

Canonical is making a bold move in integrating in an Long Term support release so many changes and changes from C code to Rust code.  On the other this move makes this release really interesting and we can see that Ubuntu is really moving forward to deliver a modern, secure, responsive Operating system 

As with the previous STS release Ubuntu 25.10,  Ubuntu 26.04 is using only Wayland Server and since Gnome 50 has completely dropped X11 server support,  be aware that xRDP package software will not work anymore.  The best alternative we can recommend for remote Desktop functionalities is the Gnome Remote Desktop built-in software.  Other distro (not using Gnome) can/might still be compatible with the xRDP software and can still be an option for remote desktop capabilities..

We are really busy lately but we will try to publish some more posts about Ubuntu 26.04 ,xRDP, Remote desktop evolution…  Stay Tuned 

Till next time 

See ya