June 22, 2026
ROS2 Jazzy vs Humble: Which Distro Should You Use?
Both are long-term support releases. They are not interchangeable, and picking wrong means rebuilding your workspace later.
ROS2 ships named distributions ("distros") on a roughly yearly cadence, and at any given time two or three are in active use. Right now the choice that matters most is between Jazzy Jalisco, the current long-term support release, and Humble Hawksbill, the previous LTS that much of the existing ecosystem still targets.
The core difference: which Ubuntu you're on
| Humble Hawksbill | Jazzy Jalisco | |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu version | 22.04 Jammy | 24.04 Noble |
| Release type | LTS (older) | LTS (current) |
| Support window | Phasing out | Supported until 2029 |
| Ecosystem maturity | Very high - most packages ported | High and growing - some packages still catching up |
This is the decision that cascades into everything else: you don't choose a ROS2 distro independently of your OS. Jazzy requires Ubuntu 24.04; Humble requires 22.04. If you're provisioning new hardware in 2026, that alone usually settles it in Jazzy's favor.
What actually changed in Jazzy
- image_transport - new parameters to selectively disable plugins at runtime and pass custom QoS settings when creating publishers and subscribers, relevant for any camera-heavy pipeline including SNN perception nodes.
- Messages - new velocity/transform message fields and a new
ARROW_STRIPmarker type. - rosbag2 / rqt_bag - breaking API changes, partly driven by Ubuntu Noble's updated library versions.
- Gazebo integration - tighter testing and integration with the current Gazebo version; older Gazebo releases still work but are less well-tested on Jazzy.
Migration is not always smooth
In practice, jumping Ubuntu LTS versions alongside a ROS2 distro upgrade tends to surface unrelated pain: NVIDIA driver compatibility on a new Ubuntu release, Gazebo version transitions, and rebuilt dependencies. Many teams sidestep this by testing Jazzy inside Docker first rather than upgrading a production machine's OS directly - the same reasoning behind shipping a pre-built Docker image rather than asking users to build ROS2 and CUDA from source.
Which one should you use?
For a new project starting now: Jazzy, by default. It has the longer support window and matches the current Ubuntu LTS, so new hardware and new packages are increasingly built against it first. Stay on Humble only if you have a specific dependency, driver, or vendor SDK that hasn't been ported to Jazzy yet - this is common with niche hardware drivers and some neuromorphic-vendor SDKs (Intel's Loihi tooling among them).
NeuroCUDA's ROS2 package and Docker image target Jazzy Jalisco directly, on the assumption that anyone deploying new SNN robotics tooling in 2026 is starting on the current LTS rather than maintaining a Humble system.
Where this fits with neuromorphic robotics
The distro choice matters more than usual in neuromorphic robotics specifically, because a lot of existing SNN-and-ROS research - see our survey of ROS2 SNN projects - targets Humble or even ROS1, since it was written before Jazzy existed. If you're building new SNN robotics tooling today rather than reproducing an older paper's setup, Jazzy is the safer foundation. New to ROS2 itself? Start with What Is ROS2?
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between ROS2 Jazzy and Humble? Jazzy runs on Ubuntu 24.04 and is supported until 2029; Humble runs on Ubuntu 22.04 and is being phased out.
Should I use Jazzy or Humble for a new project? Jazzy by default in 2026, unless a specific driver or SDK you depend on hasn't been ported yet.
Which distro does NeuroCUDA ROS2 target? Jazzy Jalisco on Ubuntu 24.04.