According to the Ubuntu release schedule, Canonical announces the new version of Ubuntu about a month after the new GNOME release.
Therefore, every Ubuntu release includes the latest version of GNOME, such as Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla” arriving with GNOME 3.38 “Orbis.”
However, for the upcoming Ubuntu 21.04 “Hirsute Hippo”, which is set to be released on April 22, 2021, Canonical has decided to change its planned plan.
Following the schedule, Ubuntu 21.04 should feature the GNOME 40 desktop, which will arrive in March 2021, a month before the new Ubuntu release
But now, according to a new announcement from Ubuntu's Sebastien Bacher, Hirsute Hippo will remain in GNOME 3.38 with GTK3, instead of GNOME 40 with GTK4.
According to Sebastien Bacher, the reason behind this is the stability of a new GTK4 toolkit, a major shell design overhaul in GNOME 40, and its impact on GNOME extensions and the Yaru GTK theme, which Ubuntu includes by default.
For these reasons, this Ubuntu release cycle will not feature GNOME 40 and GTK4.
Nevertheless, Ubuntu 21.04 will definitely be released with other changes such as "private home directories" by default.
In addition to Ubuntu, the Fedora plans to feature the latest GNOME release, GNOME 40, in the upcoming Fedora 34, which will also arrive in April this year.
Also, if you want to try the development version of Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo before its stable release , you can download it from here.
Information source: fossbytes.com
