Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 1 Released, But No Desktop Image for Intel/AMD
The first monthly development release, Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 1, is available to download!
Ubuntu developer team announced this snapshot last night, though a few images are missing, including Ubuntu 26.10 Desktop image for modern Intel/AMD platform.
I’d like to announce the first successful publication of the Stonking Stingray monthly snapshot – Stonking Snapshot 1 (and the first
snapshot of the 26.10 cycle!). You can find the images on cdimage.ubuntu.com,…
…A few images are missing from this first snapshot – we’re aware and working on them; they should be available for Snapshot 2.
Meaning for modern Intel/AMD platform, you can only try out this snapshot through virtual machine (run arm64 VM on amd64 host). It however failed in my case, so I tried the XUbuntu 26.10 flavor instead.
XUbuntu 26.10 Snapshot 1
Ubuntu 26.10, code-name Stonking Stingray, is the next short term release, that is scheduled to be released on October 15 with 9 months support until July, 2027. It targets Linux 7.2 as the default kernel and GNOME 51 as the default desktop environment.
It will probably feature an optional local AI integration, a minimal secure boot Grub, and full Rust core utilities. The official release note page is ready but empty at the moment of writing.
For the current development release, it still has Kernel 7.0 and GNOME 50, and most things look just like the current Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
As far as I know, it has following updates:
- Plasma-desktop 6.6.5, KDE Gear 26.04, KF6 Framework 6.26.0.
- LXQt Desktop 2.4.0.
- OpenJDK 27.
- FFmpeg 8.1.
- Nginx 1.30.0.
- Nodejs 24.15.
- Lazarus 4.6.
- And many Lomiri (formerly Unity 8) and rust library updates.
For more changes about Ubuntu 26.10, keep an eye on the official release note via the link above, or see change archives.
Get Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 1
NOTE: as mentioned the amd64 desktop image for Intel/AMD is NOT availabe in this release.
To download the .iso images for Desktop (arm64) and Server, as well as Netboot tarball, WSL, and pre-install server images, go to the link below:
For the official flavors with other desktops or for education purpose, download them via the links below:
NOTE: this release does not include Ubuntu MATE 26.10 and Ubuntu Studio 26.10.
- EdUbuntu 26.10.
- KUbuntu 26.10.
- LUbuntu 26.10.
- Ubuntu Budgie 26.10.
- Ubuntu Unity 26.10.
- Ubuntu Cinnamon 26.10.
- UbuntuKylin 26.10.
- XUbuntu 26.10.
Future Ubuntu 26.10 Development Releases
The next snapshot 2 release is scheduled on June 25th. There will be also snapshot 3 and snapshot 4 releases in July and August. For more, see the table below.
NOTE: GNOME 51 and Kernel are developed by other teams, not Ubuntu. And, the kernel release dates are made according to this predictions.
| June 21, 2026 | Linux Kernel 7.1 |
| June 25, 2026 | 26.10 Snapshot 2 |
| June 27, 2026 | GNOME 51 Alpha |
| July ??, 2026 | 26.10 Snapshot 3 |
| August 1, 2026 | GNOME 51 Beta |
| August 20, 2026 | 26.10 Feature Freeze, Debian Import Freeze |
| August ??, 2026 | 26.10 Snapshot 4 |
| August 29, 2026 | GNOME 51 RC |
| August 30, 2026 | Linux Kernel 7.2 |
| September 12, 2026 | GNOME 51 Stable |
| September 24, 2026 | 26.10 Beta |
| October 01, 2026 | Kernel Feature Freeze |
| October 08, 2026 | 26.10 Final Freeze |
| October 15, 2026 | 26.10 Final Release |
Source: UbuntuHandbook