What changed in Ubuntu settings
Two LTS releases apart, Ubuntu’s settings list is shorter at the top and larger underneath — and it grew a section about how much you are using the computer.
Six out, two in
Gone from the first screen between 22.04 LTS and 26.04 LTS: Removable Media, Region & Language, Users, Default Applications, Date & Time, About.
Added: System and Wellbeing. The six are inside System.
In rows: 525 arrived and 437 left, with 1,162 and 986 across all three pairs.
Wellbeing is the genuinely new one
Every other change here is rearrangement. Wellbeing is a section that did not exist, holding screen time and break reminders — the desktop picking up an idea that phones shipped years earlier.
It is a reasonable marker of what a desktop is now expected to be: not only a machine you operate, but one that has an opinion about how long you have been operating it.
The renames are a vocabulary change
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Applications | Apps |
| Color | Color Management |
| Wacom Tablet | Graphics Tablets |
| Privacy | Privacy & Security |
Applications to Apps is a desktop system adopting the phone word. Wacom Tablet to Graphics Tablets is the opposite of a brand becoming a category — a category reclaiming a name a brand had held.
Compare the releases
22.04 vs 26.04 lists every row and path; two more pairs are in the index. In the simulator: 26.04 LTS, 24.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS.
Related: the Ubuntu settings guide, macOS vs Ubuntu, and the cross-system picture.
Try it yourself, on the real menusOpen any of 43 operating systems in your browser and walk the Settings tree exactly as it appears on the device. No download, no account.Frequently asked questions
Where did About go in Ubuntu 26.04?
Into the new System group, together with Users, Date & Time, Region & Language, Default Applications and Removable Media — six first-screen entries folded into one.
What is Wellbeing in Ubuntu settings?
A section added between 22.04 and 26.04 holding screen time and break reminders. It is the one genuinely new area in this period rather than a rearrangement.
Why is it called Apps now instead of Applications?
Ubuntu adopted the shorter word phones made standard. The contents did not change.