14 DAY TRIAL // Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) is scheduled to launch on October 22, but users won't be able to tell that something is different. It's not a bad thing, but this will be the last time we'll be able to say that about Ubuntu for quite a while.
The current Ubuntu releases are powered by Unity 7, and this is where the problem lies. It's an old piece of software, and it hasn't received any major features in a long time. Being the face of Ubuntu, it's easy to see why people would consider a version boring since nothing seems to be different from one edition to another.
That's, of course, not true. When a new Ubuntu development cycle is started, all the new packages are pulled from the Debian unstable repository, and they are worked into the new edition. Most of the stuff is just under the hood, but make no mistake about it, Ubuntu 15.10 will be a better version than Ubuntu 15.04, but just not visually different.
Boring is good
Mark Shuttleworth said a few years back during a Q&A session that it was good to be boring. The same kind of remark was made then, and he said that he would take boring over broken any day of the week. We can safely say the same about Ubuntu 15.10, which won't be a glorious release, but any measure.
Sure, it will integrate Linux kernel 4.2 and a lot of other new packages, but regular users won't be able to tell the difference. Maybe the wallpaper will be marginally different and that is pretty much it. It's also worth noting that it won't ship with the same version of Unity 7. This part of the OS is constantly updated, but not in any way that would make a visual difference.
So, why is Ubuntu 15.10 the last of the boring releases, you ask? Well, the answer is simple. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is also around the corner, and it will arrive in April 2016. Canonical is trying its best to provide Unity 8 in a working state by then and from the looks of it that will happen.
Unity 7 will still ship as default for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, but users will also have access to a much more stable and user-friendly Unity 8 session, that should make the new LTS a very exciting version.