Canonical releases Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 4 ahead of beta

Canonical has released the fourth and final monthly development snapshot for Ubuntu 26.10, codenamed ‘Stonking Stingray’. This release serves as a final preview before the upcoming beta scheduled for September 24.

Key technical updates in Snapshot 4 include the Linux 7.2 kernel, GNOME 51, and Mesa 26.2 graphics drivers. Notably, the snapshot features a completed transition to Rust-based core utilities, with commands such as cp, mv, and rm now rewritten in Rust. The release also introduces experimental Amd64-v3 builds for newer CPUs and various hardware variants, including Raspberry Pi and Arm64.

Canonical advises users to treat these snapshots as ‘throwaway artifacts’ rather than production-ready installations, as they are intended to test build machinery and iterate on development processes. While this snapshot uses Linux 7.2, plans indicate the final Ubuntu 26.10 release will utilize the Linux 7.3 kernel.