Nate Drake goes comfortably numb at the vast number of improvements introduced in Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat.
This year is already special in that it marks 20 years since Ubuntu first graced Linux users’ desktops. April also marks the release of version 24.04 (code name Noble Numbat), the latest Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) release.
By default, Ubuntu 24.04 will be supported for five years, until June 2029. This covers all packages in the main Ubuntu repository.
However, Ubuntu Pro subscribers can also benefit from an additional five years of support. Personal subscribers use Ubuntu Pro for free on up to five machines. If subscribers also choose to purchase the Legacy Support Ubuntu Pro add-on, this provides another two years of coverage, effectively meaning that Ubuntu 24.04 can benefit from a total of 12 years of security and support coverage until 2036.
This support applies to the entire distro, not just core packages, which means Ubuntu now offers comparable levels of long term support to RHEL.
Noble Numbat is also available for a variety of CPU architectures. The ARMhf version has received an update to over 1,000 packages, which now use 64-bit over 32-bit values, solving the Year 2038 problem. (For more information on this bug, read Nate’s guide, p.78.)
We were eager to fire up the latest version, so downloaded the 5.3GB ISO. At the time of writing, this is a daily build, so we encourage your to do your own research into specific features if you read this after the official release date of Ubuntu 24.04 on 25th April.
On first boot, we noted that Noble Numbat now comes with an enhanced installer. Not only is it clearly laid out but it offers the option to configure Accessibility settings for seeing, hearing, typing and using the mouse.
You are also now given the option to choose between Interactive Installation – the step-by-step installation we know and love – or Automated Installation. The latter is designed for advanced users with access to an autoinstall.yaml file designed to repeat system setup for multiple machines.
Ubuntu 24.04 has reintroduced experimental support for guided ZFS installations, both encrypted and unencrypted deployments. Noble Numbat also carries over its predecessor’s tentative support for TPM-backed FDE (full disk encryption) on those
