Ubuntu 26.10 'Stonking Stingray' beta brings more Rust and an AI speech-to-text tool

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Ubuntu 26.10, codenamed Stonking Stingray, is now in beta ahead of its release on 15 October, The Register reports. This interim release continues what Canonical calls the oxidisation of Ubuntu, which means replacing traditional C based Unix tools with versions written in Rust. For example, "the stock OpenPGP encryption support is via the Rust-based Sequoia-PGP." Rust is designed to prevent many of the memory errors that cause security holes in C programs

A notable addition is Myna, a speech to text tool powered by a large language model. Reviewer Liam Proven notes that "this isn't installed by default, but you can add it, and a choice of models." Making it optional rather than baked in seems a sensible approach, given how divisive AI features in operating systems have been. Windows users have not always been offered that choice

The beta ships with GNOME 51, which mostly worked in testing apart from a few missing theme icons. The installer gives clearer visual feedback and downloads package updates during setup. A full install takes about 9GB of disk, or 13GB with swap, and idle memory use is about 1.2GB. Kubuntu 26.10 uses Plasma 6.7.5 and handled two monitors well, thanks to the open source Nouveau driver for Nvidia cards

There is a bigger change coming for KDE fans. Plasma 6.8, expected in Kubuntu 27.04, drops the old X11 display system completely, so 26.10 may be the last Kubuntu release with X11 support. Most users will not notice, but some older apps and setups still depend on it. Proven's verdict was simple: "Ubuntu remains the go-to desktop Linux for most people."

Do you run Ubuntu or another Linux distribution? And are optional AI tools like Myna the right way to add AI to an operating system?

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