Ubuntu 26.04 LTS: The Great Showtime Mystery Finally Solved

Ubuntu fans testing the daily builds or monthly snapshots of the upcoming Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release have been scratching their heads over a puzzling omission. Despite being officially announced as the replacement for the venerable Totem video player, Showtime—GNOME’s sleek new video player—hasn’t been preinstalled in the “extended selection” on the ISO images.

This confusion is particularly acute because Resources, another software swap announced alongside Showtime, has been present on the ISO for quite some time. So what gives? Why is one replacement ready to roll while the other remains conspicuously absent?

The Patent Problem: Showtime’s Rocky Road to Main

Credits need not roll on hope just yet, as Showtime could be making its debut soon. The latest package upload to the resolute archives includes a change that goes some way to explaining why it’s not been present sooner. The changelog reveals:

“Depend on gstreamer1.0-plugins-extra instead of gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad. Ubuntu splits out functionality from gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad that is critical for the desktop, to allow shipping it in main without the more questionable parts of -bad.”

Let’s decode this technical jargon. The new version no longer makes packages affected by (potential) patent, licensing, or copyright concerns in certain jurisdictions a hard dependency. That’s a crucial distinction because to ship Showtime as a default application, those potentially problematic dependencies would need to be on the ISO too—something Ubuntu’s legal team and policy won’t allow.

The Main Event: Getting Showtime into Ubuntu’s Core

The journey to get Showtime into Ubuntu’s main repository (where packages that ship on the ISO need to be) involves several moving parts. There’s the main inclusion request (MIR) process, which evaluates whether a package meets Ubuntu’s criteria for inclusion in main. There’s also the task to update the Ubuntu seed—the carefully curated list of packages that form the ISO—to remove Totem and add Showtime.

These processes take time, especially when dealing with a new application that needs to prove its stability, security, and compliance with Ubuntu’s strict packaging standards. The fact that these wheels are in motion suggests that Showtime’s absence is temporary rather than permanent.

Showtime’s Stellar Features: Worth the Wait

For those unfamiliar with Showtime, it represents a significant upgrade over the aging Totem player. The application brings a modern, GNOME-native interface with features like hardware acceleration, subtitle support, playlist management, and smooth playback of various video formats. Its design language aligns perfectly with GNOME’s HIG (Human Interface Guidelines), making it feel like a first-class citizen rather than an afterthought.

The screenshots accompanying the announcement show a clean, minimalist interface that puts the focus squarely on your content. Gone are the dated GTK2-era widgets that made Totem feel increasingly out of place in modern GNOME sessions.

How to Get Showtime Right Now

If you’re running Ubuntu 25.10 or 26.04 and you want to try Showtime, you don’t need to wait for any updates. Pop open your Terminal and run sudo apt install showtime to fetch it and its dependencies. It’s that simple.

Those on earlier versions of Ubuntu can install Showtime from Flathub, GNOME’s preferred distribution method for applications that don’t need to be part of the base system. The Flatpak version will stay up-to-date with the latest features and bug fixes, though it may not integrate quite as seamlessly with the system as an apt-installed version would.

Totem Loyalists: Fear Not

Any long-standing fans of Totem out there don’t need to fret. The aged player remains available on the resolute repos on new installs, and it won’t be removed on 24.04 systems that upgrade to 26.04. Ubuntu has a history of maintaining compatibility and not forcing changes on users who have established workflows.

This approach makes sense—there’s no need to disrupt users who are perfectly happy with Totem’s functionality. However, for new installations and users who want a more modern experience, Showtime will eventually become the recommended choice.

The Bigger Picture: Ubuntu’s Application Strategy

The Showtime situation highlights an interesting aspect of Ubuntu’s application strategy. The distribution walks a fine line between providing a complete out-of-the-box experience and maintaining its commitment to free and open-source software principles. By splitting out potentially problematic codecs and plugins, Ubuntu ensures that users in all jurisdictions can legally use the distribution while still providing easy paths to enable additional functionality if desired.

This approach has served Ubuntu well over the years, allowing it to be used in educational institutions, government agencies, and enterprises that require strict compliance with software licensing requirements.

Looking Ahead to April 23, 2026

With the final stable release of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS scheduled for April 23, 2026, there’s plenty of time for the Showtime integration to be completed. The development team has demonstrated their ability to handle complex transitions like this, and the fact that Resources made it into the ISO without issue suggests that Showtime’s inclusion is simply a matter of dotting i’s and crossing t’s.

For now, curious users can experiment with Showtime through the methods described above, providing valuable feedback that will help polish the application before its official debut as Ubuntu’s default video player.

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