Ubuntu 12.04

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) is the current Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) release, made available on schedule on 26 April 2012. Ubuntu 12.04 is Canonical's 16th release of Ubuntu and its fourth long term support version.. The name for the release was announced by Shuttleworth on 5 October 2011 and is named after the pangolin anteater. Unlike previous LTS releases that have been supported for three years for the desktop version and five years for the server version, this release will be supported for five years for both versions.

Following the Ubuntu Developer Summit in early November 2011 Canonical announced that the default download for 12.04 will be 64-bit, with 32-bit still available as a user choice. Other changes in this release include a much faster start up time for the Ubuntu Software Center and refinements to Unity. This release also replaced the Banshee media player with Rhythmbox, as the default media player and dropped the Tomboy note-taking application and the supporting Mono framework as well.

In January 2012 Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 12.04 would incorporate a new head-up display (HUD) feature that will allow hotkey searching for application menu items from the keyboard, without the need for using the mouse. Shuttleworth said that the HUD "will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications" but for Ubuntu 12.04 at least the menus will remain.