Ubuntu 25.04: Better installer, support for Intel Arc, new PDF viewer

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Canonical released version 25.04 of Ubuntu Linux aka “Plucky Puffin” at the end of last week, just before Easter, as planned. The version falls exactly in the middle between two LTS versions and, accordingly, offers many innovations both in front of and behind the scenes. For example, the system comes with the fresh Linux 6.14 kernel. In addition to the usual detailed improvements to existing drivers, this also includes support for hardware that was previously simply missing in Ubuntu.

The new kernel also makes various performance improvements, so that the “generic” kernel is already faster than its predecessors. This should primarily benefit emulators such as Wine, which now tickles up to 50 percent more frames per second (fps) from the available hardware.

Canonical has also updated various userland drivers in line with this. The Dynamic Boost function in notebooks with a compatible Nvidia GPU can now be used, as well as full hardware acceleration on systems with an Intel Arc GPU (Intel Core Ultra Xe2 / Intel Arc B580/B570). There is also good news for users of systems with ARM CPUs. For the first time, Ubuntu offers a generic installation image for these systems, which makes installation just as easy as with the generic image for AMD64 on corresponding systems.

Drive on sight with the installer

And speaking of the installer: Canonical has been continuously improving it for many years. The basis for this was initially the complete new development with Ubiquiti and its Flutter-based GUI. Since then, the developers have continuously reaped the rewards of their work; in Ubuntu 25.04, for example, the installation of Ubuntu alongside other operating systems has been significantly improved. The new version of the distribution now not only recognizes existing Windows installations and those of other operating systems better than before, but also contains improved description texts regarding the options for the user.

Ubiquity also handles BitLocker drives in Ubuntu 25.04 much better than before. Step by step, the installer keeps the user up to date with the upcoming steps and options during the installation. Finally, the routine now also offers an option to delete and overwrite existing Ubuntu installations. In addition, it is now easier to create encrypted installations, for example in combination with LVM setups.

Updates for GNOME

The GNOME desktop, the heart of Ubuntu, has also seen some changes. The most obvious change is that Ubuntu 25.04 comes with GNOME 48, the latest version of the desktop environment. It finally offers the option of grouping notifications in the system tray. This creates order and makes operation on smaller displays considerably easier. In addition, it is possible to delete all notifications of an app together, for example if it is too talkative and floods the system tray with messages.

GNOME 48 also thinks about the health of its users, with a Wellbeing function that essentially records screen time and makes it statistically analyzable. In this way, the user knows how much time he has spent in front of the computer and when a break is required. The system automatically reminds the user of this, depending on the set configuration. Wellbeing can also be used to define limits, i.e., to restrict active screen time over a certain period of time.

GNOME 48 also offers HDR. However, there is a drawback. Applications only benefit from GNOME HDR if they use the entire toolkit of the GNOME libraries. Applications such as Firefox or Chrome do not. Some applications already had problems with HiDiP, and the situation is similar with HDR. This is probably why HDR is disabled by default in GNOME 48 and therefore in Ubuntu 25.04 – if you want to use it, you have to enable it explicitly.

The king is dead, long live the king: The long-serving PDF viewer Evince is retiring in Ubuntu 25.04, replaced by its fork Papers. However, it does not have all the functions of its ancestor, especially regarding advanced functions such as annotating PDFs. However, it is more intuitive to use. If you would prefer to continue using Evince, install it from the package sources and change the configuration of the desktop so that Evince is set as the default again.

Protection help for IPv6

Thanks to Ubuntu 25.04, there is finally nothing standing in the way of the widespread abolition of IPv4: version 1.52 of the NetworkManager is included. This offers significantly better IPv6 support and also allows IPv6 to be given preference over IPv4 by ticking a box. In addition, the routing for DNS queries can be configured more precisely, which can be helpful in VPN setups, for example.

In addition, the new Ubuntu comes with the usual model updates. systemd 257.4, Mesa 25.0.x, BlueZ 5.79 and Gstreamer 1.26 are the latest representatives of their guild and thus improve the support of hardware and software. The Python scripting language is included in version 3.13.2, the C compiler GCC in version 14.2, whereby version 15 can be installed later from the package sources. Java 24, Go 1.24 as well as Rust 1.84 and .Net 9 round off the package. Desktop users have also been considered: LibreOffice 25.2.2 is just as up-to-date as GIMP 3.0.2, VLC 3.0.21 or the audio editor Audacity 3.7.3. Thunderbird 128.0 is also brand new, but as before, is only available as a snap package.

Conclusion

Ubuntu 25.04 is therefore a successful and recommended update. An upgrade is possible either by reinstalling with the improved Ubiquity or via the system's package tools. ISO images are available as usual on the Ubuntu website.

(mack)