Things are starting to get serious. The development of a version of Ubuntu lasts six months and begins right after the launch of the previous installment. Thus, that of Hirsute Hippo began at the end of October, but the first Daily Builds were practically a Focal Fossa on which they would add the news. At the beginning of March a step was taken that I would label as curious, because after knowing that Ubuntu 21.04 would stay in GNOME 40, we began to see apps from that desktop, although the environment will continue to be GNOME 3.38.
The first important step is the one that has been taken today, and that is that the last Daily Build already includes Linux 5.11, which is the kernel that the final version will use. Linux 5.12 is in development right now, but the tousled-haired hippo will stay in the current installment, as the feature freeze took place three weeks ago. And even if that freeze came a little later, Linux 5.12 won't do it until mid-April.
Ubuntu 21.04 is coming April 22
We recall that Linux 5.11 was released on February 14 and includes many hardware improvements and other functions that you can see in this link. If you are interested in testing both Ubuntu 21.04 and Linux 5.11, you can do so by downloading the latest Daily Build that is available at this link. In order not to spoil anything in the native installation, I recommend doing it in a Live Session or installing it in a virtual machine, although it must be said that right now it does not work in GNOME Boxes.
The next important step should already be the presentation of the wallpaper, at which point Canonical and Ubuntu will publish the image on social networks. The change and the surprise should be very big so that they modify the design a lot, the one that uses a purple background with the drawing of the animal in fine lines. Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo is a normal cycle version that will arrive on April 22 and it will be supported for 9 months.