Ubuntu 26.10 Stonking Stingray Officially Announced for October 15 Release

Canonical has added Ubuntu 26.10 to the public roadmap, confirming the codename “Stonking Stingray” and a targeted release date of October 15, 2026.

This release will probably remove several features from signed GRUB builds for Secure Boot, including support for btrfs, hfsplus, xfs, and zfs as /boot filesystems, as well as JPEG, PNG image support, and the part_apple partition-table module. Support for ext4, FAT, ISO9660, and squashfs for snaps will remain to help reduce GRUB’s attack surface.

GNOME 51 is expected to be the default desktop environment, as it is scheduled for release on September 16, 2026, about one month before Ubuntu 26.10’s launch.

On top of that, Ubuntu 26.10 is likely to include Linux kernel 7.2, as its Feature Freeze on August 20, 2026, aligns with the kernel’s release schedule. Canonical typically ships the latest upstream kernel available at freeze, which may be a late 7.2 release candidate rather than the final 7.2 build.

Before all that happens, though, we’re still eagerly awaiting the release of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Resolute Raccoon, just a few days from now on April 23, 2026, which will serve as the foundation for millions of desktop and server systems over the next two years.