Ubuntu 26.10 launches with on-device speech recognition

Canonical has released Ubuntu 26.10, codenamed ‘Stonking Stingray,’ with Myna, an opt-in speech-to-text agent that runs entirely on-device using local LLMs. Canonical describes accessibility as the initial priority for its AI-assisted desktop plans. Myna will continue to evolve and be included by default in future Ubuntu releases, although the current feature is optional.

The release includes GNOME 51, promising a more responsive desktop and improved accessibility. Linux kernel 7.3 adds support for Intel Xe3P (Nova Lake), AMD Zen 6, and NVIDIA 615.x Linux drivers. It also brings improvements to DRM and power management hooks, plus out-of-the-box Lustre filesystem support.

Security and enterprise changes include a full migration to Rust-based uutils coreutils, post-quantum package signing, and broader TPM-backed full-disk encryption support. Microsoft Entra ID integration supports password-plus-MFA and passwordless authentication flows. Ubuntu also upgrades ROCm to version 10.0, extending support to newer AMD GPU architectures and frameworks including vLLM and SGLang.