Ubuntu 'Stonking Stingray' beta swims out: Deeper Rust 'oxidization' plus LLM speech-to-text

Ubuntu 26.10, “Stonking Stingray,” has entered beta testing, slightly later than planned – it is in fact scheduled to be released on October 15. While many people will stay with the LTS version, there’s some interesting stuff in there. There are already some release notes, but like the OS itself, they aren’t final yet, and there are still some gaps. Canonical does note that the "oxidization" process – exchanging core Unix tools written in C with new Rust replacements – goes further in this edition: now, the stock OpenPGP encryption support is via the Rust-based Sequoia-PGP. Perhaps one of the most daringly different new features is Canonical’s promised LLM-powered Myna speech-to-text tool. This isn’t installed by default, but you can add it, and a choice of speech-recognition models. We found various sets of instructions, including the unofficial “Ubuntu Handbook”. Our geriatric testbed was a little old for this, though, and we couldn't try it. …