UWN Issue 931 February 8-14 2026.

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 931 for the week of February 8 - 14, 2026.

In this Issue

  • Ubuntu 24.04.4 released
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Hot in Support
  • Other Meeting Reports
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Ubuntu Circles! (LoCo) News
  • UbuCon Kenya 2026
  • UbuCon Asia 2027 - Call for bids!
  • Ubuntu Circles! (LoCo) Events
  • Call for testing: mesa-2404 (25.2.8 update)
  • Why we’re saying goodbye to “Software & Updates”
  • Post Quantum Support in Ubuntu 25.10 and the upcoming 26.04 LTS
  • A new Ubuntu wiki, Part 3: Content
  • Other Community News
  • Ubuntu Cloud News
  • Canonical News
  • In the Press
  • In the Blogosphere
  • Featured Audio and Video
  • Updates and Security for Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, and 25.10
  • And much more!

General Community News

Ubuntu 24.04.4 released

Utkarsh Gupta of the Ubuntu Release Team announces the release of Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS for Desktop, Server, and Cloud - as well as many flavors. We’re reminded what a point release is, the flavors taking part in the release. We are given a link to the updated Release Notes and more.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-24-04-4-lts-released/76854

Media attention to the release:

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open: 144608 (+32)
  • Critical: 313 (+6)
  • Unconfirmed: 74271 (+20)

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Translations

  • Swedish: 100.00% (0/884)
  • Albanian: 98.87% (3978/0)
  • Ukrainian: 89.21% (37882/1654)
  • German: 87.16% (45085/326)
  • French: 85.78% (49935/7521)

Hot in Support

Ubuntu Community Discourse Trending Top 5 Threads

Find more support at: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/c/support-and-help/306

Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions

Ask (and answer!) questions at: https://askubuntu.com/

Other Meeting Reports

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Times shown are UTC unless otherwise specified. For more details and further dates please visit: https://ubuntu.com/community | https://discourse.ubuntu.com/upcoming-events

Ubuntu Circles! (LoCo) News

UbuCon Kenya 2026

Doreen Peace Nangira Wanyama announces UbuCon Kenya 2026. A link is provided to learn more, or submit a talk proposal, with the event happening March 27-28, 2026.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubucon-kenya-2026/76661

UbuCon Asia 2027 - Call for bids!

Youngbin Han reminds us that preparations for UbuCon Asia 2026 @ COSCUP are underway, before moving to the announcement that bids are now being accepted for UbuCon Asia 2027. We’re given details about UbuCon, and details on submitting a bid which must be before May 1, 2025. A list of recent countries is provided (they cannot reapply for 2027), as well as where we can go if we have questions or need help.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubucon-asia-2027-call-for-bids/76657

Ubuntu Circles! (LoCo) Events

The following LoCo team events are currently scheduled in the next two weeks:

Looking beyond the next two weeks? Visit the respective Circles!/LoCo Team calendar to browse upcoming events.

Please also see:

The Hub

Call for testing: mesa-2404 (25.2.8 update)

Alan Griffiths tells us the “candidate track of the mesa-2404 snap has been updated to 25.2.8”. We’re given details of some snaps using this, and told how we can check (if its a content snap or indirect usage). We’re asked to test the candidate, which includes using the apps normally, and requested to report results. We’re told it will be promoted to stable on February 17, 2025.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/call-for-testing-mesa-2404-25-2-8-update/76725

Why we’re saying goodbye to “Software & Updates”

Jean Baptiste Lallement tells us “Software & Updates” will soon disappear from being installed by default on Ubuntu. In this somewhat detailed post we’re shown why it’s hoped the removal will “reduce confusion”, told we’re not actually losing anything. Feedback is welcome, with numerous feedback options provided.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/why-we-re-saying-goodbye-to-software-updates/76783

Post Quantum Support in Ubuntu 25.10 and the upcoming 26.04 LTS

Ravi Kant Sharma reminds us of Shor’s algorithm (1994) which “showed that widely deployed public-key systems .. would be vulnerable once sufficiently powerful quantum hardware becomes available”. We’re reminded of the 2016 NIST standardization effort in creating quantum-resistant algorithms, and their 2024 published standards. This post, using Ubuntu 25.10 as the example, shows how we can test some of this out, and contrast results with the older Ubuntu 24.04 LTS systems which won’t use post-quantum methods. This is a somewhat complex post, that asks us to 'experiment with these algorithms", and share our feedback.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/post-quantum-support-in-ubuntu-25-10-and-the-upcoming-26-04-lts/76840/

A new Ubuntu wiki, Part 3: Content

Shane Crowley writes the third in a series on the new Ubuntu wiki. This post focuses on how the wiki will relate to other Ubuntu platforms, and the type of information expected to be put on the new wiki. Mention of requirements for contributors of official Ubuntu documentation is made, and why they’re not ideal for the wiki. Next up is wiki content, in this detailed and somewhat lengthy post, with many thanks given.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/a-new-ubuntu-wiki-part-3-content/76903/

Other Community News

Jon Seager on Mastodon: “Ubuntu for AI” and “Rust adoption in Ubuntu”

Jon Seager (posting on Mastodon) tells us of a busy week. Highlighted are a presentation titled “Ubuntu for AI” at AI Native Dev, followed by a keynote slot at Rust Nation UK where Jon will be speaking about the “Oxidizing Ubuntu” project.

https://ubuntu.social/@jnsgruk@hachyderm.io/116041360701334070 | https://ubuntu.social/@jnsgruk@hachyderm.io/116041366316731131

Ubuntu Cloud News

Canonical News

In the Press

30+ Chrome extensions disguised as AI chatbots steal users’ API keys, emails, other sensitive data

Jessica Lyons writes about 32 malicious Chrome extensions that steal private data and which are available on the Chrome Web Store. We’re also told when some are removed, others with new publishing IDs appear, with details provided of these ‘man in the middle’ attacks.

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/12/30_chrome_extensions_ai/

In the Blogosphere

Linux 7.0 Scheduler Updates Land Time Slice Extension, Performance & Scalability Work

Michael Larabel informs us of “pretty exciting scheduler changes” that have been merged into the Linux 7.0 kernel. We’re given some details of these changes, a link to the Git merge, and other links if we need more.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.0-Scheduler

Linux 7.0 Removes Support For Signing Modules With Insecure SHA-1

Michael Larabel tells us that as signing kernel modules using SHA-1 are no longer considered secure, the signing of modules has thus been removed. We’re told existing signed modules can still be loaded. We are given a link and a quote from the pull request.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.0-Modules-No-SHA1-Sign

EXT4 In Linux 7.0 Improves Write Performance For Concurrent Direct I/O Writes

Michael Larabel gives us details of improved write performance for ext4 that is merged into the Linux 7.0 kernel. We’re told of the concurrent direct I/O that have been improved, a new err_report_sec attribute, and more, including a link to the pull request for this change.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.0-EXT4

Linux 7.0 Now Defaults To Intel TSX Auto Mode For Performance Benefits On Newer CPUs

Michael Larabel writes that the Linux 7.0 kernel will default to “auto” instead of “off” for Intel TSX (Transactional Synchronization Extensions) CPUs. We’re told where this could be a “big help”, shown how we can check our systems for TSX capabilities, given a link to the merge, and as well as given some benchmarks on the improvement.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-TSX-Auto-Linux-7.0

XFS Introducing Autonomous Self-Healing Capabilities With Linux 7.0

Michael Larabel this time writes about the XFCE self-healing features added in the Linux 7.0 kernel. We’re given some details, and quotes from Darrick Wong’s patches, about these improvements, some completed code refactoring, and also bug fixes now merged.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/XFS-Linux-7.0

Featured Audio and Video

Canonical Ubuntu: The story behind Python code coverage

“Ned Batchelder (nedbat), creator and long-time maintainer of coverage.py, joins Push to Talk | Meet the Maintainers to share his path into programming and open source and the real story behind one of Python’s most popular testing tools. We talk about the journey to coverage.py, the turning points that shaped it, and why the measurement of the library is only 94%.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjWjfRVTUHo

Updates and Security for Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, and 25.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 22.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2027

Ubuntu 24.04 Updates

End of standard support: April 2029

Ubuntu 25.10 Updates

End of Life: July 2026

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Further News

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Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

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Glossary of Terms

Other acronyms can be found at: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/glossary-uwn/42405

Get Involved

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