Ubuntu 25.04, codenamed "Plucky Puffin", is released a few days ago. I have been running the Ubuntu 25.04 VM for the past two days. From what I've seen, this isn't a just another release; it's packed with updates that touch pretty much every corner of the operating system.
In this post, I'm going to walk you through all the exciting new features and the improvements that make Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" such a neat update.
10 Best New Features in Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin"
The folks at Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, are saying that Ubuntu 25.04 is a "polished & performant release". Yes, they're not kidding!
Here's the top 10 things that I loved in the latest Ubuntu 25.04 release.
1. GNOME 48 Goodies
One of the first things you'll notice is the shiny new desktop environment. Ubuntu 25.04 comes with GNOME 48, which brings a whole lot of user experience improvements.
Think smarter battery management with a "Preserve Battery Health" mode for laptops – something my aging laptop will definitely appreciate!
There's also a "Wellbeing Panel" to help you keep an eye on your screen time.
Plus the HDR (High Dynamic Range) support is now included right out of the box!
And the Canonical devs have even contributed their triple buffering patches to GNOME, making things smoother, especially on less powerful desktops.
Some of the other notable features in GNOME 48 are:
- Notification stacking,
- Performance improvements,
- An enhanced image viewer,
- New fonts,
- A new audio player named Decibels,
- An updated text editor,
- And many.
2. Goodbye Evince, Hello Papers!
We've got a new tool for reading PDFs!
Ubuntu 25.04 is ditching the old Evince PDF reader and introducing "Papers" as the new default. It promises a more modern look and feel, and hopefully, better performance too.
3. A New Way to Find Your Way: BeaconDB
In the past, Ubuntu is used to rely on Mozilla for geolocation services. Well, that's changing. "Plucky Puffin" is now using a new service called "BeaconDB".
This new system will power things like automatic timezone detection, weather forecasts, and the handy night light feature. It's also designed with privacy in mind, which is always a good thing.
4. Linux Kernel 6.14
Ubuntu 25.04 ships with the latest Linux kernel 6.14. This brings a bunch of general improvements and a particularly interesting new feature called "sched_ext". For those unaware, it basically allows developers to play around with how your computer's processor handles tasks in a more flexible way.
It even opens the door for potentially hot-swappable schedulers designed for specific uses, like gaming or server workloads. Pretty cool, yeah?
5. Updated Essential Tools
Speaking of what's under the hood, Ubuntu 25.04 also comes packed with the newest versions of all the essential tools you need, like Python, Golang, Rust, .NET, LLVM, OpenJDK, and GCC.
6. Devpacks
And for developers, there's a new thing called "devpacks".
The devpacks are snap bundles introduced by Canonical in Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin". These devpacks are designed to expand toolchain availability on Ubuntu to a broader set of developer tools, such as formatters and linters.
The purpose of devpacks is to deliver the latest versions of these developer tools. The first example of a devpack is the “devpack-for-spring” snap, which brings the latest Spring Framework and Spring Boot projects to Ubuntu.
$ snap find devpacks
Name Version Publisher Notes Summary
devpack-for-spring 1.0.2 vpa1977 classic Development tools for Spring\Uffffffff projects
devpack-for-spring-manifest 2 vpa1977 - The list of all available content snaps for Spring\Uffffffff
This aims to make it easier for application developers to build and test their applications using the newest Spring project versions, specifically Spring Framework 6.1 and 6.2, and Spring Boot 3.3 and 3.4.
7. Faster Booting with Dracut
Here's something interesting that's being introduced as an experimental feature in Ubuntu 25.04: Dracut.
Currently, Ubuntu uses initramfs-tools to help your system boot up. Dracut is an alternative to this, and the plan is to potentially make it the default in the next release, Ubuntu 25.10.
Some early testers have even reported faster boot times with Dracut, so that's definitely something to keep an eye on! If you're feeling adventurous, you can even try switching to Dracut in Ubuntu 25.04, but make sure you have a backup plan just in case.
Related Read: How To Fix Busybox Initramfs Error On Ubuntu
8. Better Networking and Time Security
Ubuntu 25.04 now supports NTS (Network Time Security)-enabled time servers by default. This means your system time will be synchronised more securely.
NetworkManager now handles wpa-psk-sha256 secured Wi-Fi networks and allows for more advanced network configuration. Plus, the way Ubuntu checks if it's online is now more reliable, using Netplan and systemd-networkd.
9. Great News for ARM Fans and Gamers!
If you're into ARM-based devices, you'll be happy to hear that Ubuntu 25.04 comes with a new ARM64 Desktop ISO.
This should make it much easier to install Ubuntu on ARM64 laptops and virtual machines, paving the way for better support for devices like those powered by Snapdragon processors. Qualcomm themselves are pretty excited about this collaboration.
Gamers also get a little love in this release! Thanks to improvements in Linux kernel 6.14, you might see frame-rate boosts when playing Windows games. And on supported NVIDIA hardware, Dynamic Boost will be enabled straight out of the box.
10. Enhanced Security and a Fresh Look
Security is always a top priority, and Ubuntu 25.04 includes updates to AppArmor profiles for better app security.
$ sudo apparmor_status
apparmor module is loaded.
44 profiles are loaded.
39 profiles are in enforce mode.
/snap/snapd/23771/usr/lib/snapd/snap-confine
/snap/snapd/23771/usr/lib/snapd/snap-confine//mount-namespace-capture-helper
/usr/lib/snapd/snap-confine
/usr/lib/snapd/snap-confine//mount-namespace-capture-helper
rsyslogd
snap-update-ns.desktop-security-center
snap-update-ns.firefox
snap-update-ns.firmware-updater
[...]
You'll also notice a few visual tweaks here and there, like resized icons, enhanced contrast, and a brand-new default wallpaper.
Plus, JPEG-XL support is now enabled by default!
$ apt list --installed | grep libjxl
WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.
libjxl-gdk-pixbuf/plucky,now 0.11.1-4 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libjxl0.11/plucky,now 0.11.1-4 amd64 [installed,automatic]
Ready to Give Ubuntu 25.04 a Spin?
I'm definitely looking forward to exploring all the new features and seeing how it performs.
Are you interested to take Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" for a spin? Ubuntu 25.04 is available to download right now.
Keep in mind that this is an interim release, which means it will be supported with updates until January 2026. If you're currently running Ubuntu 24.10, you can even upgrade directly without a fresh install.
Let me know in the comments below what you're most excited about in this release, or if you run into any interesting experiences while trying it out!
