Canonical has launched the most recent model of its Ubuntu Linux distribution, Ubuntu 25.04 “Plucky Puffin,” and with it the primary official assist for operating the working system on Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Arm laptops.
“Plucky Puffin combines the very newest in open supply desktop know-how with a give attention to making prime quality developer tooling available on Ubuntu,” claims Canonical’s Jon Seager, vice chairman of Ubuntu engineering, of the discharge. “Ubuntu 25.04 delivers efficiency enhancements throughout Intel GPUs, and a brand new purpose-built ISO for Arm64 {hardware} lovers. Our rising assist for confidential computing with AMD SEV-SNP [Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging] makes Ubuntu the goal platform to deploy AI [Artificial Intelligence] workloads securely and at scale on each public clouds and personal knowledge facilities.”
Canonical’s Ubuntu 25.04 is now out, that includes Linux 6.14, a brand new installer, extra safety features, and Qualcomm Snapdragon assist. (📷: Canonical)
The brand new launch bundles the Linux 6.14 kernel, with new sched_ext scheduling system and an NTSYNC driver to spice up Microsoft Home windows functions operating beneath WINE and Proton, with the GNOME 48 desktop surroundings. This consists of out-of-the-box excessive dynamic vary (HDR) show assist, a performance-boosting triple buffering system, and user-facing options together with a setting to assist protect battery well being and a “Wellbeing Panel” for monitoring display time and software utilization — plus a brand new default PDF reader, Papers.
The largest change, although, is that Ubuntu 25.04 is the primary to come back with a unified production-ready ISO picture appropriate with a number of generations of Qualcomm Snapdragon Arm-based gadgets. “Qualcomm Applied sciences is proud to collaborate with Canonical and is totally dedicated to enabling a seamless Ubuntu expertise on gadgets powered by Snapdragon,” says Qualcomm’s Leendert van Doorn of the corporate’s work collectively. “Ubuntu’s new Arm64 ISO paves the best way for future Snapdragon enablement, enabling us to drive AI innovation and adoption collectively.”
The brand new multi-generational Arm64 assist follows 24.10’s single-vendor Lenovo ThinkPad T14 assist. (📷: Canonical)
Different new options embody higher assist for Intel’s newest Arc discrete and embedded graphics processors, improved manageability and community controls, and assist for AMD’s SEV-SNP safety system on virtualization hosts. “Canonical’s continued funding in confidential computing displays the significance of defending workloads in more and more advanced environments. With Ubuntu 25.04 now having AMD SEV-SNP host assist, clients can take full benefit of AMD hardware-based safety features to assist isolate digital machines, safeguard reminiscence integrity, and scale back assault surfaces,” says AMD’s Frank Gorishek. “We’re proud to collaborate with Canonical to increase safe, scalable options throughout enterprise infrastructure.”
Ubuntu 25.04 is now accessible to obtain from Canonical, in desktop and server variants; as an interim launch, nonetheless, it’ll solely obtain mainstream assist for 9 months from launch, not like the five-year assist lifecycle of the final Lengthy Time period Assist (LTS) model, Ubuntu 24.04.
