14 DAY TRIAL // The next major update for Ubuntu will be called Groovy Gorilla and will land in the fall, according to a release schedule shared this week by parent company Canonical.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS was officially launched this week as one of the most-anticipated updates in a long time, and now Canonical is working on the next important release due later this year.
Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla will thus be the next major Ubuntu update after 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa), 19.10 (Eoan Ermine), and 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver).
Groovy Gorilla is projected to officially enter the testing phase this summer, while the feature-freeze stage is scheduled to be reached in late in August. At this point, the work on new features should be completed, with the development process to then focus on bug fixes and additional refinements.
If everything goes according to the plan, Ubuntu 20.10 should go live on October 22 as a final release, according to the release calendar. The final freeze and the release candidate are both set for October 15.
Ubuntu 20.04 now available
Meanwhile, all eyes are on the new Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, which is now available for download both with the dedicated ISO images shared by Canonical and in the Microsoft Store for WSL installation.
Ubuntu 20.04 is published in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 users who want to use the new version with the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which allows for various Linux distributions to run on top of Windows 10.
Microsoft will soon release the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 as part of the next Windows 10 feature update due next month. WSL2 is already available for testing in version 2004 preview builds in the Windows Insider program for anyone who want to try out Ubuntu 20.04 ahead of the global rollout of this Windows 10 update.