On 29 September, Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu operating system, officially opened the upgrade path from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) to Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (Resolute Raccoon). This upgrade is just one month behind the usual schedule. LTS, or Long Term Support, versions like 24.04 and 26.04 are released every two years and are supported for five years, with the option to extend this support through Ubuntu Pro. By default, these versions do not update to non-LTS versions, meaning the only upgrades available are to new LTS releases. The upgrade path is now beginning to roll out, with Ubuntu 26.04.1 becoming available in the coming days for all computers running Ubuntu 24.04 through the update manager. However, the rollout is progressive, so the upgrade notification may not appear immediately for all users. Users are not required to install the new version. Ubuntu 24.04 will continue to receive support until 2029, or 2034 with Ubuntu Pro. Those who want to upgrade earlier can use the terminal command "do-release-upgrade," but only after all pending updates are installed, either through the graphical update manager or via the command line with apt. Users are advised to proceed with caution during the upgrade, as such transitions can sometimes lead to unexpected issues. Canonical has highlighted a few areas of concern, such as the end of the GNOME session under Xorg, a graphics server that is not removed but no longer appears as an option on the login screen. The default session now uses Wayland, with X11 applications running through XWayland since Ubuntu 25.10. However, desktop environments like Xfce, LXQt, Cinnamon, and MATE still support Xorg. Another consideration is memory requirements: 6 GB is recommended for Ubuntu 26.04.1, compared to 4 GB for Ubuntu 24.04. While the upgrade can proceed on systems with 4 GB, performance may be reduced. Ubuntu 26.10 is scheduled for release on 15 October. However, users running Ubuntu 26.04 (or 24.04 and about to upgrade) will not receive this update automatically. To get the update, users must either already be on an interim version (a non-LTS release) or have an LTS version configured to receive such updates. For those on Ubuntu 26.04, the setting can be changed in the "Software and Updates" application, under the "Updates" tab. There, users can select "For all new versions" in the "Notify me of new Ubuntu versions" field.