Pros & Cons
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- Elegant, cohesive interface that's easy to navigate
- Flexible and lightweight installation options
- Smooth performance in testing
- Extensive customizability
- Free
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- Can be frustrating to troubleshoot issues
- Doesn't come installed on many devices
- Some major third-party apps remain unavailable
Windows and macOS might be the most popular desktop operating systems around, but they aren't your only options. The GNU/Linux-based Ubuntu (pronounced "oo-boon-too") is an excellent alternative. It features a sophisticated user experience, performs reliably, and is fairly simple to set up. Best of all, it's free to download and use. However, troubleshooting Linux can be a technical process, and Ubuntu doesn't support nearly as many third-party apps as macOS Tahoe and Windows 11, so they remain our Editors' Choice winners for the category.
Ubuntu Basics: What Is It, and Who Should Use It?
If you're unfamiliar with GNU/Linux and Ubuntu, let's step back for a moment and establish some basics. For a more in-depth history and discussion, head to our explainer on GNU/Linux.
What most people refer to as a Linux OS is actually a combination of the Linux kernel and the Unix-based GNU operating system (which recursively stands for GNU's not Unix). Today, there are many GNU/Linux distributions (distros) that comprise several distinct elements, including a kernel, a graphical user interface (GUI), a windowing system, a desktop environment, and more. Ubuntu is an example of a GNU/Linux distro. It's based on Debian (another distro) and uses a combination of open-source software, but some don't consider it fully open-source. Ubuntu uses a modified version of the Gnome desktop environment. Other desktop environments you might come across include KDE Plasma, MATE, and XFCE.
Ubuntu's name comes from an African term for a philosophy that translates to "humanity towards others." A company called Canonical maintains the project. Apart from the desktop version I discuss here, Canonical releases versions of Ubuntu for cloud, IoT, and server platforms. The UBports community now manages the development of Ubuntu Touch, an open-source mobile OS project.
Ubuntu (along with ChromeOS) is a good option if you have an older PC that can't run Windows 11. Ditto for Macs of a certain age, especially since macOS Tahoe is the last version to support Intel-based models. It's also just a worthy option if you have an independent streak or want an OS that's free of bloat and rock-solid stable. Developers and scientists are good candidates. As I discuss later, however, Ubuntu presents some challenges for mainstream users. It doesn't support some major third-party software, for instance, and may require some interaction with the command line.
What's New: The Latest LTS Release Is Here, Right on Schedule
Ubuntu releases come in two tracks: long-term support (LTS) and interim. The desktop OS version numbers always have the structure YY.MM. New versions also get alliterative code names in the style of [Adjective] [Animal].
Resolute Raccoon (26.04) is both the latest biennial LTS release and the newest interim release. Canonical guarantees five years of free security and maintenance updates for LTS releases; the more frequent interim releases get just nine months of support. Canonical's Ubuntu Pro service, described below, offers extended security updates.
Resolute Raccoon updates the Linux kernel to version 7.0. Beyond the usual collection of under-the-hood performance and stability improvements, Canonical trumpets support for Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) CPUs in the new kernel. Raccoon also upgrades its Gnome desktop environment to version 50, bringing accessibility and user interface enhancements, including improved parental controls. Gnome 50 now runs exclusively on Wayland, and the older X.org graphical server is available only if you install another desktop environment or flavor of Ubuntu. The Resources app replaces the older System Monitor and Power Statistics apps for monitoring application and system resource usage. You can explore all the many updates in Canonical's release notes.
Pricing: Is Ubuntu Really Free?
Yes, you can download and install Ubuntu from Canonical's website for free. Ubuntu's download page asks for a suggested donation ($15) when you download the installer. Donations go to the Ubuntu community, as described on Ubuntu's website. You can also donate directly to other projects, such as the Gnome Foundation, which develops the default desktop environment that Ubuntu uses. I encourage you to support open-source software if you use and value it.
An enterprise support service, Ubuntu Pro, adds an extra five years of security updates for LTS releases, bringing the total to 10 years. It also includes centralized management, live kernel patching to avoid update reboots, and other enterprise-focused features. It's free for personal use on up to five machines, while Canonical charges varying prices for business use, starting at $25 per year per desktop and increasing for servers. Phone support and five years of additional security updates, bringing the total to 15 years, are available for an additional fee.
System Requirements: Can Your PC Run Ubuntu?
The system requirements for Ubuntu are featherweight compared with other modern desktop operating systems, and an installer for Arm processors from the likes of Qualcomm Snapdragon is now available. You need just a 2GHz dual-core processor or better, 6GB of RAM, 25GB of free hard drive space, either a DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media, and internet access (in most cases). Even lighter versions of Ubuntu (called flavors) are available to try, which I discuss a bit later.
In most cases, the OS you use is tied to the hardware you pick. To get macOS, for instance, you need to buy an Apple computer. Only a few devices come with Ubuntu preinstalled compared with the legion of PCs that come with Windows. One of the best options is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (PCMag reviewed the Windows version). You can also buy a selection of Dell PCs with Ubuntu preinstalled.
Framework's modular laptops, including the Framework 13 and Framework 16, also support Linux. The Framework Laptop 13 Pro is the company's first model that ships with Ubuntu preinstalled.
System 76 sells models with the previous LTS version of Ubuntu, while Think Penguin lists hardware that works with various versions of Ubuntu. You can also just update Ubuntu to the latest version on most computer hardware. Check out Ubuntu’s full list of certified hardware for other options, including those from Asus, Dell, HP, IEI, Lenovo, and Xilinx. Nothing prevents you from installing the latest version of Ubuntu on hardware not listed there, but you might encounter unexpected driver issues.
It's obviously ideal when software and hardware drivers work seamlessly without additional configuration, and Apple Macs, Windows PCs, and Chromebooks all do a better job with this. You should be ready to troubleshoot and tinker with your Ubuntu system at some point in the process. Peripherals might not work, the OS might not detect your hardware correctly, and some files might not play by default. Solutions exist for just about every problem you encounter, but finding them can be time-consuming. Many fixes involve entering commands in the Terminal command line window. For example, on my test PC, audio from speakers didn't work on a fresh install. I had to perform a web search for the problem, learn that a buried option in alsamixer was the likely cause, run this terminal application, and turn off an automute setting that isn't visible anywhere in Ubuntu's graphical desktop interface.
Getting Started: Multiple Options for Setting Up the OS
Aside from installing Ubuntu as the main or only OS on your computer, you can dual-boot, run it in a virtual machine (VM), use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), or create a bootable USB drive. I recommend the last method if you want to try the OS without installing it, since it doesn’t leave a footprint or install the Grand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) permanently on your system. Canonical provides an excellent step-by-step guide to creating a bootable USB drive with the OS.
You have several other options (mostly of interest to developers) for using Ubuntu. For command-line-only use, Multipass is a prepackaged VM you can download for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Two more options are specific to Windows: You can install Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store or enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux with a simple wsl --install command in Windows' command line. This defaults to the Ubuntu distro, though you can install others or even create a custom one for WSL. It can run GUI (graphical user interface) applications, but you don't get the full Ubuntu desktop I describe below. All of these options give developers an easily accessible Ubuntu environment, which is impressive.
Whatever method you choose, you can sign in with a local account; there’s no need to hand over your data to a gigantic corporation. In fact, you can even install it without connecting to the internet, which is unheard of for the commercial OSes. ChromeOS requires you to sign in with a Google account, and Apple and Microsoft make it difficult to install their OSes without signing in to cloud accounts. Canonical no longer offers a cloud storage and syncing service. This has pros and cons: You don't have to sign up for yet another online account at installation, but you lose the backup and syncing capabilities of such a service. You can, however, use a third-party cloud provider, some of which offer Linux desktop apps.
Launching Ubuntu: You're Best Off With a Full Install
To launch Ubuntu from a USB drive, you need to restart your computer. When the computer starts up, tap whatever key your PC maker designated to open the BIOS menu, where you can change boot settings. Common keys that do this are Del, Esc, F12, or F2. (This article shows the keys that the most popular PC brands use.) On Windows, you can also open Settings, search for "startup," select Advanced Startup, and choose to start from the USB. On Macs, you must restart while holding the Option key down to get to the startup drive menu.
From the BIOS menu that appears on restart, select the USB with Ubuntu. The system runs through a disk check, after which you can choose Try Ubuntu and run the OS directly from the USB drive. After this, you see the Ubuntu desktop. Although this is a more involved process for turning on your computer than you might be used to, the steps are easy to follow. If you choose to install Ubuntu fully on your disk, starting up the system requires fewer steps, and programs will run faster.
On a custom desktop PC with an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X processor, I experienced a few bugs. The live environment could connect only to my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network, not my 5GHz network, for example. This problem fixed itself after I installed Ubuntu and rebooted into the full environment. While my headphones worked, my speakers didn't until I hunted down the aforementioned automute option. My display, keyboard, mouse, and Nvidia graphics hardware worked properly.
During a full installation, you decide whether you want Ubuntu to erase your existing OS or run alongside it, with a boot option in GRUB at startup. I installed Ubuntu alongside Windows 11, and Ubuntu easily handled resizing my Windows 11 partition to make room. During the setup process, you can enable accessibility features (though you can't completely set things up using your voice as you can with Windows), connect to Wi-Fi, choose your language and location, configure the keyboard layout, and designate a password (you can choose whether to require this at startup).
Interface: A Versatile and Familiar Design That Borrows From Competitors
Ubuntu’s interface is pleasing and familiar, seamlessly melding elements of ChromeOS, macOS, and Windows. The iconography of system and application icons is consistent. Elements are clear and intuitive to navigate. Subtle animations and depth effects create a cohesive desktop environment. Microsoft’s Fluent Design System might be more polished, but it’s less consistent throughout. macOS still wins out on design consistency, but Ubuntu is closer than ever to parity. All three now use rounded window corners.
Like the other big three OSes, Ubuntu offers a system-wide dark mode; both the dark and light modes look cohesive and benefit from stylish orange accents, though you can choose any accent color you want. Like in macOS and Windows, you also get a lock screen that shows the date, time, and battery level, along with notifications from the apps you specify in Settings. A Night Light mode reduces blue light for after-dark computing; you can set hours for this or configure it to automatically turn on at sunset.
If you want to customize the interface in detail, you can download Gnome Tweaks. As in macOS, a persistent bar runs across the top of the screen unless you set an app to full-screen mode. Unlike macOS, which no longer has application menus, it does provide a few functions. Program window controls more closely resemble those in Windows, with a line, a box, and an X as the options; they're in the top-right corner of the window.
Ubuntu's Dock shows a column of your pinned and running program icons. By default, Ubuntu places the Dock on the left-hand side of the screen, but you can change its position (bottom, left, or right) and the size of the icons to whatever you prefer. You can also auto-hide the Dock to clear up some space. Single-clicking an app launches it, opens the app's window, or displays a preview of any open windows. A series of orange dots to the right of the application icon indicates the number of open windows (up to four).
Right-clicking (or two-finger tapping if you're using a touchpad) on an application's Dock icon opens a contextual menu. You can launch a new window of the app, quit any running instances, or remove it from the dock. When you right-click on some applications, you get the Ubuntu equivalent of Windows' Jump Lists. Steam, for example, offers options to launch to specific sections of the application, such as your library or the Store, while LibreOffice Writer offers a choice to create a document (not to open an existing one, as Word does on Windows).
The Show Apps page, accessible from the Ubuntu logo at the bottom of the Dock, shows the icons of all the applications on the system in alphabetical order. It's closer to macOS's Launchpad than Windows' Start menu and ChromeOS's Launcher, which now closely resemble one another. Those show both documents and app icons and allow for pinning. Ubuntu offers pinning, too (though only for apps, not documents). You also get a system-wide search bar at the top of the screen. This screen supports folders, too; just click and drag one application icon on top of another to create a folder. I experienced some glitches with this menu. Sometimes it wouldn't let me scroll to the bottom of a folder, and other times the icons overlapped.
The Activities panel (in the top left corner) opens an overview of all your active windows, the same system-wide search bar as in the Show Apps screen, and the virtual desktop switcher. It's similar to Windows' Task View. Click it (or press the Windows key, which Ubuntu rebrands as the Super key) to manage open apps and virtual desktops effectively.
Speaking of active windows, Ubuntu has helpful windowing conventions. Drag a window to the side to resize it to half the screen width, or to a corner to resize it to exactly a quarter of the screen, just like in Windows. Drag it to the top to fill the screen, or pull it back down to restore it to its windowed size. You can also click on the edge of a window to resize it, as well as control window sizes by pressing (on a Windows keyboard) the Windows button + the left, right, up, or down arrow keys. Ubuntu doesn't have anything like Windows' Snap Layouts, Desktop Peek (move your cursor to the end of the taskbar to preview active Windows), or Shake (shake the active window back and forth to clear the desktop behind it).
In the middle section of the top bar, Ubuntu shows the date and time; click this to see a miniature calendar, a list of notifications, and media playback controls.
The upper-right-hand side of the bar has two areas: one is the equivalent of notification tray icons, and the other (the system menu) offers quick access to screen brightness, network connection, sound, and settings. Ubuntu puts your computer in Suspend mode to save power after a set period of inactivity and also displays an estimate of how long your battery will last before needing a charge.
The rest of the interface space is your desktop. You have fewer options for organizing items on your desktop compared with macOS or Windows, however. You can pin files and folders there only—not applications—though you can sort desktop icons by name, date, or type.
The Files app uses a straightforward design. It's simpler than Windows' File Explorer and more intuitive than macOS' quirky Finder. As in those OSes, filenames are case-sensitive. On the right-hand panel, you see all the standard user folders (such as Documents, Downloads, Music, and Pictures), along with a Recent option. You also get the expected search and sort options. You can open multiple tabs within the same window, but File Explorer and Finder offer more tools for viewing and organizing files.
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Ubuntu's Files window doesn't have a preview sidebar for viewing files' contents as macOS and Windows do. With Ubuntu, your options are either a grid or three list views (with icon sizes adjustable). You can also add columns of information manually and sort them, and right-click a file or folder to compress it into a 7Z, TAR, or ZIP archive.
Flavors: Totally Change the Look and Feel of Ubuntu
The default Ubuntu desktop is just one of many official ones. These Ubuntu Flavors, such as Kubuntu and Ubuntu Budgie, change the look of the OS by using different designs, desktop environments, and windowing systems. Kubuntu, for example, uses the KDE Plasma desktop environment that features a Start Menu of sorts. Other flavors target specific users (Ubuntu Kylin is for Chinese users, and Edubuntu appeals to the education market), but most work well as home or work desktop environments. Lubuntu and Xubuntu are particularly lightweight versions and, thus, good options for aging computers. Each flavor requires a separate download and installation.
System Settings: All the Options You Expect on a Modern System
Ubuntu's straightforward Settings window (easily accessible via a gear icon in the top-bar system menu) includes visual customizations (such as changing the wallpaper), usability features (such as Search and Notifications), and hardware-related categories (including Network, Power, and Sound). The Network section is where you access the VPN, which supports OpenVPN, PPTP, and WireGuard. There’s also a section for Online Accounts, where you can sign in to your Google, Microsoft, Nextcloud, or other online account.
I tried signing in with both a Google and a Microsoft account, giving it access to my calendar, contacts, files, and mail from those services. The Calendar pane on the top bar successfully displayed my Google Calendar events, and Ubuntu even mounted my OneDrive files in the file manager. The Evolution Mail, Gnome Calendar, and Gnome Contacts applications can access these details. Unfortunately, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS no longer supports accessing Google Drive files in the file manager.
You can also upload a color profile in the Color section, while the Display section lets you scale the screen to a different percentage or use fractional scaling for high-DPI screens. Night Light settings are here, too. The Keyboard section features a handy list of programmable shortcuts. Battery usage options and three power usage levels (Balanced, Performance, and Power Saver) appear in the Power section of Settings. For the latter, you can control options for dimming or turning off the screen and shutting down your computer.
Updates and Security: You Still Need to Be Vigilant
Keeping your system up-to-date is vital. With Ubuntu, the Software Updater utility handles this task. It checks for security patches daily by default and installs them automatically. It also provides non-security package updates, although it doesn't install them automatically. Canonical’s Ubuntu Security Notices page details known Ubuntu vulnerabilities and their fixes.
Yes, Ubuntu users need to be diligent about installing the latest patches, even though Linux systems represent a smaller attack surface than macOS or Windows. The fact that users are fragmented across many distros, many of which are open-source (and thus open to audits from their respective communities), is also an advantage. However, obscurity is not sufficient protection against security threats, so be sure your system is up to date.
Accessibility and Voice Support: Decent Tools, But Still Trails Top OSes
You can find Ubuntu’s accessibility features in Settings > Accessibility. Categories include Seeing (high contrast, large text, screen reader), Hearing (visual alerts), Typing (screen keyboard, repeat keys), Pointing & Clicking (mouse keys, click assist), and Zoom (screen magnification). If you want, you can even permanently pin the Universal Access tab to the system-level menu bar for easier access. Ubuntu doesn't offer as extensive a collection of accessibility options as either macOS or Windows—including adaptive input devices—but it covers some of the basics, works with the Orca screen reader, and supports BRLTTY for Braille displays.
Ubuntu doesn't ship with any AI voice feature, a mainstay of modern operating systems. Windows has Copilot, macOS has Siri, and ChromeOS has Gemini. Of course, you could simply go to the web versions of ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini in a browser on Ubuntu for this kind of service. No official native desktop versions of these AI chatbots are available for Linux, and the Linux version of Chrome doesn't have the Gemini integration. However, command-line tools like Claude Code are available.
Managing Applications: Head to the App Center or the Command Line
Installing applications, with an ample selection, has become more straightforward in recent versions of Ubuntu. Although you can get apps elsewhere, the simplest way is to use the App Center; look for the orange icon in the Dock. Just know that only some of the many available apps are here. This is similar to the app stores on mobile OSes and, indeed, on macOS and Windows. The left panel has tabs for Explore, Featured, Productivity, Development, and Games, and you can find 20 categories (Art and Design, Entertainment, Science, and more) at the bottom of the Explore tab.
Apps are mostly self-contained Snaps, a package management system that Canonical developed. The Ubuntu Multipass VM I mentioned earlier is a Snap package. The Ubuntu App Center automatically updates the Snap applications you install. Snaps are bundled software packages that work across multiple Linux distributions. However, other distros use Flatpak, a similar distribution-agnostic package format, by default.
The App Center's simplicity can be misleading, and many Snap applications are buggy in my experience. For example, while Slack has an official Snap, it was broken for me and wouldn't launch without a command-line option. Valve's Steam gaming client also did not function properly on my PC when I downloaded the Snap version from Ubuntu's App Center, and I had to install it directly from Valve's website.
Ubuntu still offers traditional Linux software repositories, which are archives of software you can install. You can install Synaptic, a complex graphical application, to get software from repositories or use the apt command in the Terminal. To download and install a software package, enter the following lines of code (once you find the package name):
sudo apt install [package name]
You can easily uninstall apps from the App Center's Manage tab or use Terminal with the command below:
sudo apt-get --purge remove [package name]
You can also add third-party software repositories or personal package archives to install software from elsewhere. However, you should ensure you trust the developer or repository creator before doing so.
Applications you get from outside the App Center or your software repositories usually require you to download a .deb package. Software download pages often detect your system correctly and provide the download. After downloading a .deb file, double-click it and click Install when the App Center window opens. Install only the packages you trust.
Included Apps: A Useful Collection of Basic Software
Ubuntu's default selection of applications includes the Firefox web browser and a minimal selection of basic utilities, including a document viewer and file manager. The optional extended application selection, which you can choose during installation, includes additional applications for crafting documents, editing photos, listening to music, and sending emails. Both the LibreOffice office suite and Mozilla Thunderbird email app are part of that selection. You can also install these applications as needed from the App Center.
Support for high-profile, third-party applications trails macOS and Windows. Most people can find suitable alternatives that fit their needs, though, and powerful web-based applications continue to crop up for things like photo editing, tax preparation, and video editing.
Ubuntu's Screenshot tool is excellent. You tap the Print Screen key, and you see choices for Selection, Screen, or Window. You can even capture screen videos with it. However, you can't grab non-rectangular images or do post-screenshot editing directly with the app, as you can with the Snipping Tool in Windows. Still, I like that Ubuntu makes your screenshot ready to paste from the clipboard right away.
Thunderbird and the Calendar app work fine, but as noted earlier, only Calendar pulls information from online accounts you link in the Settings app. Neither is as sophisticated as the Windows or macOS equivalents, but you might just end up using web versions of Gmail and Outlook anyway.
Third-Party App Support: The Main Problem With Most Linux Distros
For communication apps, you can get both Slack and Teams. Google Chrome is available, as are alternative browsers like Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi. Signal and Telegram offer apps for the platform, but WhatsApp doesn't.
Notably, Microsoft 365 desktop apps are not available natively, but LibreOffice includes functional alternatives in its Presentations, Spreadsheets, and Writer apps. These aren't as sleek or full-featured as the Office ones, but they let you save files in formats that work with the first-party apps. Again, you could always use Google’s or Microsoft’s suite of document creation apps in the web browser. Coders can download Atom or Sublime Text if the built-in text editor isn’t sufficient. Google's Android Studio and Microsoft's Visual Studio are available, too.
Music lovers can use the Rhythmbox player, part of the extended app selection, to play local files. Music streaming fans can get the Spotify e app. The Showtime video player is part of Ubuntu's extended application selection, and you can optionally install VLC for video playback. You won't find apps for the big streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video, but you can always watch those in a web browser.
Adobe Creative Cloud apps are notably unavailable on Linux. That said, many free and open-source alternatives make up for that. For graphics editing, you can use Gravit Designer, GIMP (or Glimpse), Inkscape, Vectr, and Krita. Photographers can turn to darktable, RawTherapee, or Shotwell for image editing. ShotCut is a good option for editing video. Plenty of online photo and video editors are worth trying, too. Animators, modelers, and game developers can most likely find a home with Blender and Unity, but AutoCAD users are out of luck.
Several Linux VPNs and antivirus solutions are available for Ubuntu. Mullvad, NordVPN, and ProtonVPN all offer clients in the former category. You can also manually configure a VPN in Ubuntu’s settings. Most antivirus companies don't make software for Linux, and those that do generally offer command-line utilities designed for servers. Many password managers also offer Linux versions, including 1Password, Bitwarden, NordPass, and ProtonPass.
Multimedia Support: Made for Free Formats, But Supports Others
Ubuntu doesn't work out of the box with non-free formats, such as DVD, MP3, QuickTime, and Windows Media Video, but you can optionally install these packages during setup or after the fact from Ubuntu’s Restricted Formats page. Here, you can find detailed information about support for other audio, video, and web formats.
If you want to stick with free formats, consider using the Xiph.org-developed OGG containers, including Ogg Vorbis (audio) and Ogg Theora (video). For alternatives to Office's .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx file types, try the OpenDocument formats, which the Microsoft apps also support.
Gaming: Getting Better All the Time
You can absolutely play games on Ubuntu. The OS supports graphics hardware from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia. The Steam app can play many Windows PC games with no configuration required, thanks to Valve's Proton software, which the company developed for its Linux-based SteamOS for the Steam Deck. Linux now works with a much broader selection of games than macOS thanks to Valve's efforts, but Windows is still the best operating system for PC game compatibility.
(Credit: Canonical/PCMag)I recommend installing Steam straight from Valve and skipping the Steam package in the App Center, which was buggy for me. Steam will show you which of your games can run on Linux.
The Ubuntu Software application has a Games section, but most entries are casual titles.
Michael Muchmore contributed to this review.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Ubuntu)
Ubuntu 26.04 (Resolute Raccoon)
While not as polished as it appears on the surface, the free, highly customizable Ubuntu operating system serves as an excellent introduction to Linux, installing easily and running well.