Ubuntu Core Desktop revived as Canonical forms new team

Canonical has restarted work on Ubuntu Core Desktop, an immutable version of Ubuntu in which every part of the system ships as a snap package. A newly formed team is rebuilding the project on core26, the newest Ubuntu Core base, after it went quiet following a 2023 preview. Canonical laid out the plan in a post on Ubuntu Discourse on October 28, 2026, calling it a long-term bet on the future of Ubuntu.

An immutable system keeps its core files read-only, so updates replace the system as a whole instead of changing it piece by piece. Canonical also calls the desktop "attestable," meaning a machine can prove what software it is running.

What Ubuntu Core Desktop is

"Ubuntu Core Desktop is Canonical's (currently unreleased) immutable and attestable Linux desktop," the post says. It is seperate from the regular Ubuntu desktop, whose latest release is Ubuntu 26.10.

Everything on Ubuntu Core is a snap, Canonical's own package format. That includes the bootloader, the kernel, the desktop environment and background services. Apps run strictly confined, which means they are walled off from the rest of the system and must ask before they touch user data.

Ubuntu Core itself is not new. The post says it has run on commercial IoT, embedded and robotics devices for almost ten years. Over 11,000 snaps are published in the Snap Store, it adds.

Why the 2023 preview stalled

"The biggest shortcoming of the 2023 developer preview was its architecture," the post says. That preview replaced the normal core22 base with one large snap that held most of the desktop. In early versions, it bundled the GDM login screen, the GNOME desktop and even the Firefox browser.

That design meant any change forced a rebuild of the whole image. Phoronix notes that the project made good early progress but "went rather silent" after 2024.

The author, whom Phoronix identifies as Canonical VP of Engineering Jon Seager, sounds keen on the restart. "This might be the most exciting thing I've been able to announce since taking the lead of Ubuntu," he wrote.

What the new team is doing

The work so far, according to the Canonical post:

Area	Status
Base	Rebasing on core26 is well under way
Build pipelines	Re-established
Testing and daily images	Infrastructure ready "over the coming weeks"
Desktop design	Break the desktop into separate components over the coming release cycle
Permission prompts	Camera, microphone and home directory access
KDE	Work with the KDE Neon Core team and enioka Haute Couture on a KDE Neon edition

Permission prompts are tricky. The post says they require a "complex conversation between the kernel, AppArmor and snapd," the pieces that enforce snap security.

Phoronix ties the effort to the Ubuntu 27.04 cycle and says daily images are expected during it. Canonical's post does not name a release. It gives no target date for a finished desktop.

Phoronix also says the team is focusing on three uses: browser-centric machines, developer workstations and gaming machines. The Canonical post describes "three well-defined initial use cases."

The app problem

Apps are a key blocker, Phoronix says. Some popular Linux apps are packaged as classic snaps, which run without confinement. Those cannot run on Ubuntu Core directly.

The post names Visual Studio Code as one example. Canonical's answer is to run such apps inside a Workshop, a contained development environment, while their windows appear on the normal desktop. Workshop itself has shown "promising early results" toward strict confinement "in the coming weeks."

Gaming may be easier. The Steam snap is already strictly confined, so "it satisfies the confinement requirements for Ubuntu Core," the post says.

What this means for developers

Core Desktop is not something to install today. It does signal where Canonical wants Ubuntu to go, and app makers can prepare.

• Test your app as a strict snap. Classic snaps will not run directly on Core Desktop. If you ship a Linux desktop app, check wich permissions it needs under strict confinement.
• Plan for permission prompts. Apps that read the camera, microphone or home folder will have to ask. Make sure your app handles a "no" without crashing.
• Watch Workshop if you code on Linux. Developer workstations are one of the target uses. Tools such as Visual Studio Code would run through Workshop, so try it before relying on it.
• Try the daily images when they land. Canonical expects test builds within weeks. Early bug reports will shape a desktop that is still being split into parts.
• KDE users have a path too. The KDE Neon work means the project is not tied to GNOME alone.

Canonical has promised this desktop before, and it stalled once. The daily builds, and how many everyday apps recieve strict snaps, will show whether this restart holds.