The Ubuntu team announced the release date and features for Ubuntu 21.04, codenamed Hirsute Hippo. According to Ubuntu’s release page, Hirsute Hippo will be released on April 22. Hirsute Hippo’s development cycle:
- Features Freeze: February 25, 2021
- UI Freeze: March 18, 2021
- Ubuntu 21.04 Beta: April 1, 2021
- Kernel Freeze: April 8, 2021
- Release Candidate: April 15, 2021
No GTK4, No GNOME 40
The Ubuntu team also stated that the new version will be released with GTK3 and GNOME 3.38. However, users are expecting Python 3.9, Linux 5.11 kernel or newer, and the private home directory with the Hirsute Hippo. Users can try Hirsute Hippo ahead of its stable version by download it from Ubuntu’s daily builds page.
The Ubuntu team also stated,
“We should be careful bringing any GTK4 update in the default installation until the theming question is sorted out at least. It plays nicely that Debian starts its freeze around now so it’s not likely that autosyncs will create issues for us.
Hopefully we manage to resolve enough of those questions in the remaining of the cycle to be in a better position to include the new versions when I -serie opens.”