Canonical has rolled out the beta release of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Noble Numbat, giving users a sneak peek into the upcoming operating system before its official launch on April 25th, 2024.
With just a couple of weeks remaining until the stable version of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS becomes available, the beta version offers a preview of the features and improvements to come. Among the highlights is the inclusion of the latest GNOME 46 desktop environment and the utilization of Linux kernel 6.8.
Notable enhancements in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS include an updated desktop installer with enhanced accessibility features, the introduction of a new option for importing autoinstall configurations for customized provisioning, and revised default installation choices, now labeled as Default selection (formerly Minimal) and Extended selection (formerly Normal).
Moreover, the Ubuntu Desktop Installer introduces support for guided (unencrypted) ZFS installations alongside the existing encrypted ZFS installation option, albeit both remain experimental in this release.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS introduces a brand-new graphical firmware update utility named Firmware Updater, extends support for the Raspberry Pi 5, incorporates Netplan 1.0 for advanced network management, and ships with Mozilla Thunderbird as a Snap package by default.
Internally, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS boasts an updated toolchain featuring GCC 14, GNU Binutils 2.42, Glibc 2.39, Java 21 as the default, Python 3.12, PHP 8.3, Ruby 3.2, LLVM 18, and Go 1.22.
To test Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) ahead of its official release, users can download the beta version from the official website. However, it’s essential to remember that this is a pre-release version intended for testing purposes and is not recommended for use in production environments.
