A new update released on September 21 has brought Linux 4.8 Kernel to Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak, still under development.
Spotted by Marius Nestor of Softpedia, this new development doesn’t come as a shocker as it was known for awhile that Ubuntu developers were working on rebasing Ubuntu 16.10 on the Linux 4.8 kernel series which, by the way, also happens to be under development.
The final release is expected to come by the end of September, or perhaps on October 2, 2016.
Prior to this new release, Ubuntu 16.10 was powered by the Linux 4.4 kernel that also powered Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus (although Ubuntu 16.10 also contained certain elements of the Linux 4.6 series).
The developers also briefly attempted rebasing the OS on the Linux 4.7 kernel series. However, given that it was always clear that Yakkety Yak would be based on Linux 4.8, the developers rightly decided to wait for a while till it moves closer to the final version.
Canonical also released the final beta version of Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak on September 22. Worth noting, this is going to be the final beta build of the OS.
In a related news, GNOME 3.22 desktop environment was officially rolled out yesterday, and it seems like Ubuntu 16.10 developers have already incorporated several applications and core components from the GNOME 3.22 stack.