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Another big Linux distribution release is upon us. Ubuntu 24.04 is a new long-term support release from Canonical available today.

Since it's an LTS it will be supported until June 2029. Although Canonical do suggest waiting for the first point release if you're on the previous LTS for the best experience possible. The point release Ubuntu 24.04.1 is due out August 15th, 2024.

Pictured - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Dark Sode

I went through various changes in the article going over the recent Beta but to reiterate some of the goodies:

  • Higher vm.max_map_count (1048576) to stop various games crashing (matches Fedora and Arch).
  • Linux kernel 6.8 with lots of new and improved hardware support.
  • Mesa 24.0.5 open source graphics drivers.
  • The first LTS release supporting the Raspberry Pi 5 with both arm64 server and desktop images.
  • Updated to GNOME 46.
  • A more modern slimmer version of the Ubuntu font family is now shipped as standard.
  • Lots of software updates like Firefox 124, LibreOffice 24.2, Thunderbird 115 (now a Snap package), BlueZ 5.72, Pipewire 1.0.4, OpenJDK LTS 21 now the default and so on.
  • Various security improvements like the Ubuntu kernel now restricting the use of unprivileged user namespaces. I suggest reading a little more into that specifically, as it sounds a bit complicated.

Full release notes on their Discourse Forum.

Will you be upgrading, or switching to Ubuntu for this latest release? Let me know what you're excited about from it in the comments. As a Kubuntu user since I prefer KDE Plasma, I'll be upgrading at some point over the next week.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Appears an awesome release! Optimizations for gamers too (vm_max_map_count and performance toolkit etc.)

Thanks for all your hard work at Canonical in midst of demands and accusations (and special thanks for Popey for arranging manual checks to Snap Store apps!)

Calinou Apr 25
Every Ubuntu LTS release feels special, since it's often treated as the baseline for shipping apps that are portable across distributions. Of course, the oldest still-supported Ubuntu LTS is usually the one developers are targeting (currently 20.04), but in a few years from now, this will be Ubuntu 24.04.

While I don't use Ubuntu anymore, it's still a distro I appreciate for this reason.


Last edited by Calinou on 25 April 2024 at 5:53 pm UTC
MiZoG Apr 25
QuoteHigher vm.max_map_count (1048576) to stop various games crashing

I can't wait to use this feature... in Mint 22


Last edited by MiZoG on 25 April 2024 at 5:57 pm UTC
Ehvis Apr 25
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Now I should decide whether to reinstall with base Ubuntu or use Kubuntu. Choices, choices.
WayneJetSki Apr 25
Quoting: CalinouEvery Ubuntu LTS release feels special, since it's often treated as the baseline for shipping apps that are portable across distributions. Of course, the oldest still-supported Ubuntu LTS is usually the one developers are targeting (currently 20.04), but in a few years from now, this will be Ubuntu 24.04.

While I don't use Ubuntu anymore, it's still a distro I appreciate for this reason.

I am surprised devs would not be targeting 22.04 instead of 20.04. It is already 2 years old and I would imagine most users have upgraded to 22.04 by this point.
WayneJetSki Apr 25
Quoting: EhvisNow I should decide whether to reinstall with base Ubuntu or use Kubuntu. Choices, choices.

Personally I am going to reinstall with the base Ubuntu. I am excited to try out the new Gnome 46.
Kubuntu looked less interesting to me because it is using using Plasma 5 instead of the newer Plasma 6.

Hopefully Ubuntu 22.04 works okay with my old (ancient) video card GTX 770. In 22.04 my monitor goes to sleep after a while and will not turn again and I forced to do a hard restart.
dpanter Apr 25
Quoting: MiZoG
QuoteHigher vm.max_map_count (1048576) to stop various games crashing

I can't wait to use this feature... in Mint 22
Well you can set it right this minute, nothing stopping you. :)

On another note, I could have sworn I saw at least one game needing a lot higher value than 1M to function properly. Perhaps an outlier...
I've used 16M for a long time and had no issues. Then we saw the Valve guys setting some completely insane value like 2 billion which I really can't recommend, but what the heck do I know.
mrdeathjr Apr 25
in my case stay using around november and many things runs good

sadly lubuntu dont have lxqt 2.0 and kde dont have plasma 6, maybe appear for 24.10 around october

Ehvis Apr 25
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Quoting: WayneJetSki
Quoting: EhvisNow I should decide whether to reinstall with base Ubuntu or use Kubuntu. Choices, choices.

Personally I am going to reinstall with the base Ubuntu. I am excited to try out the new Gnome 46.
Kubuntu looked less interesting to me because it is using using Plasma 5 instead of the newer Plasma 6.

For me it's kind of weighing plusses and minuses. I seriously dislike the tabletification of the UI that Gnome is doing. KDE is more a proper desktop UI and a much better usage experience. On the other hand, Gnome is just technically better. Everything feels faster and I have way less issues with the compositor. I can't even count how many times KWin restarted itself over the year I used it.

Quoting: mrdeathjrin my case stay using around november and many things runs good

sadly lubuntu dont have lxqt 2.0 and kde dont have plasma 6, maybe appear for 24.10 around october


KDE Neon should have you covered for that.
kneekoo Apr 26
Quoting: WayneJetSkiI am surprised devs would not be targeting 22.04 instead of 20.04. It is already 2 years old and I would imagine most users have upgraded to 22.04 by this point.

It's just been released, so most users definitely haven't upgraded. But history is a good teacher. It's not just Ubuntu but other operating systems have had significant issues in their early post-launch days. As a result, some people prefer to play it safe and either wait for .1 to be released or, at the very least, give it a month or so to make sure that any leftover bugs are discovered by the early adopters, and fixed by the developers.
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