14 DAY TRIAL // Another week, another newsletter from the Ubuntu Kernel Team, as announced by Joseph Salisbury from Canonical on March 23, 2016, on one of the project's mailing lists.
Yesterday, the upcoming Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system had another kernel update, and this time, it was rebased on the latest stable, long-term supported Linux 4.4.6 kernel, just in time for the Final Beta launch on March 24, 2016 (later today).
As usual, we've updated our Ubuntu 16.04 LTS machine to the new kernel build (linux-4.4.0-15.31) and we can confirm that everything works flawlessly. However, it's not yet known if this kernel version will also be added to the ISO images of the Final Beta build, but beta testers can easily install it from the repositories.
"Our Xenial kernel has been re-based to v4.4.6 and is available for testing in the archive, ie linux-4.4.0-15.31. Please test and let us know your results. Also, as an early reminder, Xenial Kernel Freeze is ~2 weeks away on Thurs, April 7," said the Ubuntu kernel developers in the newsletter.
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS arrives April 21, 2016
After today's Final Beta build, the development cycle of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) will come to an end. The kernel freeze will be in effect starting April 7, and there might be an RC (Release Candidate) build around the date of April 14, but it won't be made public.
Therefore, the final release of the highly anticipated Ubuntu 16.04 LTS operating system will arrive, as scheduled, on April 21, 2016, when existing Ubuntu 15.10 and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS users will be able to upgrade their computers.
Make sure you visit our Linux section later today for in-depth stories about the launch of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Final Beta and the opt-in flavors, to find out what new features have been implemented and to download the Live ISO images.