[Ubuntu] Ubuntu 26.04 and Ubuntu 26.04 Arm64 are now generally available

[v-AndriiKhyliuk]

Breaking changes

Ubuntu 26.04 and Ubuntu 26.04 Arm64 are now generally available for GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps.

You can use the ubuntu-26.04 and ubuntu-26.04-arm image labels in your YAML to select these images.

GitHub Actions

jobs:
  jobName:
    runs-on: ubuntu-26.04

  jobName:
    runs-on: ubuntu-26.04-arm

Target date

Thursday, September 17, 2026

The motivation for the changes

The Ubuntu 26.04 and Ubuntu 26.04 Arm64 images have completed their public preview period and are now generally available for production workloads.

Possible impact

N/A

Software difference between Ubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu 26.04

Ubuntu 26.04 is based on a newer Ubuntu release and includes updated operating system packages and developer tools. Workflows that depend on a specific package version, system library, compiler, prebuilt binary, or architecture-specific dependency should be tested on the new images.

The following table summarizes selected software differences between Ubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu 26.04. The table is not an exhaustive list of installed software.

Tool name	Ubuntu 24.04	Ubuntu 26.04	Notes
Operating system	Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS	Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS	New Ubuntu LTS release
Kernel	6.17.0-1022-azure	7.0.0-1012-azure	Updated with the new operating system
Systemd	255.4-1ubuntu8.17	259.5-0ubuntu3.4	Updated with the new operating system
Docker Buildx	0.37.0	0.37.0	Available on both images
Minikube	1.39.0	1.39.0	Available on both images
AWS CLI	2.36.40	2.36.40	Available on both images
Azure CLI	2.90.0	2.90.0	Available on both images
Google Cloud CLI	583.0.0	583.0.0	Available on both images
Rust	1.98.1	1.98.1	Available on both images
Firefox	155.0	155.0	Available on both images
Java	17.0.20+1 (default)	17.0.20+1 (default)	Default version remains Java 17

Ubuntu 26.04 and Ubuntu 26.04 Arm64 use the same image software policy where packages are available for both architectures. Some software is architecture-specific or may have different availability on Arm64.

For the complete list of installed software, see the Ubuntu 26.04 and Ubuntu 26.04 Arm64 image documentation.

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 22.04 Arm64
• Ubuntu 24.04
• Ubuntu 24.04 Arm64
• Ubuntu 26.04
• Ubuntu 26.04 Arm64
• Ubuntu Slim
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• macOS 26
• macOS 26 Arm64
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025
• Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026
• Windows Desktop 11
• Windows Desktop 11 with Visual Studio 2026

Mitigation ways

Please test your workflows on the new images and report any problems with Ubuntu 26.04 or Ubuntu 26.04 Arm64 to this repository.