20 New Features and Changes in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) is scheduled for release in a few weeks and brings numerous changes over previous LTS releases, summarised in a guide covering 20 new features and improvements.

1. Default Wayland Wayland is now the default display server, with Pipewire support for screen sharing and even NVIDIA hardware support. Users can switch back to Xorg from the login screen if needed.

2. Light‑Default Appearance The Yaru GTK theme now uses a fully light theme, removing the mixed dark‑light header bar. Window close buttons follow the GNOME 42 style with subtle gray back‑dots.

3. More Compact Desktop UI GNOME Shell upstream changes make Ubuntu 22.04 appear more compact, with tighter margins on panels, pop‑ups, menus, and OSD elements.

4. Improved Desktop Icons A new desktop‑icon extension allows dragging files to and from the desktop, with configurable placement and a refreshed appearance.

5. Horizontal Workspaces Workspaces are now added and switched horizontally, with dynamic workspace support and new multitasking gestures.

6. App Launcher Changes The launcher slides up from the bottom, supports free rearrangement of shortcuts, and shows full names on hover.

7. Dock Differences The trash icon moves to the dock, a separator distinguishes running from pinned apps, and new dock settings appear in System Settings → Appearance.

8. Accent Colours The default purple accent is replaced by orange, with a choice of ten accent colours affecting GTK, GNOME Shell, and icons.

9. Touchpad Gestures New three‑finger gestures open the workspace switcher and app launcher, with two‑finger swipes for paging.

10. Password‑Protected Archives Users can now extract password‑protected .zip files directly and create such archives via Nautilus.

11. Microphone Mute Indicator A grey icon appears in the top bar when the microphone is muted, providing clear feedback.

12. Calendar Events in Notification Shade Calendar events are shown in the notification area, with a dot indicator for the current day.

13. Power Options Three power modes—"Power Saver", "Balanced", and "Performance"—are available in Settings → Power and the status menu.

14. Show Battery Percentage The battery percentage is now displayed by default in the top bar.

15. Prominent Restart Option A clear restart entry has been added to the session menu.

16. Keyboard Shortcut Settings The shortcuts page is now a searchable sub‑section of the Keyboard settings.

17. Multitasking Options Users can choose dynamic or fixed workspaces, disable hot‑corner activation, and turn off window snapping.

18. New Screenshot Tool Pressing Print Screen now opens an interactive tool for region, window, or full‑screen captures and screen recording.

19. Proper Dark Mode Ubuntu 22.04 provides a true dark theme that affects the entire UI, fixing the half‑light issue of previous releases.

20. Firefox Snap Package Firefox is now distributed as a Snap by default; upgrading from 20.04 replaces the .deb version with the Snap version.