Ubuntu 15.10 “Wily Werewolf” Appears

By Joe Casad

Focus is on cloud and OpenStack as Canonical plugs away at the Unity desktop and adds the 4.2 kernel

Canonical developer Adam Conrad has announced the release of Ubuntu 15.10 “Wily Werewolf.” The latest release is the first to include a Linux 4.2-based kernel and the gcc-5 compiler collection. According to the announcement, the Ubuntu desktop edition includes “incremental improvements,” such as newer versions of GTK and Qt, Firefox, LibreOffice, and the Unity desktop.

The server edition places the emphasis on OpenStack, with support for the latest OpenStack Liberty release and a full complement of OpenStack modules. Other improvements include new powers for the Juju orchestration tool, Open vSwitch 2.4.0, and the Ceph 0.94.3 “Hammer” distributed storage system.

Ubuntu provides separate editions for various IT use cases, including Desktop and Server, as well as a Cloud edition and the Snappy Core version for embedded single-board systems and devices. The Ubuntu team also supports an entourage of related projects built around different desktops and toolsets. Appearing along with the main Unity-based Ubuntu release were new versions of Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Kylin (for Chinese-language users), MATE, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu. See the Ubuntu 15.10 release notes for more on the latest version.

Ubuntu 15.10 is a standard release, with 9 months of free security updates for desktop and server users. The first release of 2016, Ubuntu 16.04 “Xenial Xerus,” will be another Long-Term Service (LTS) release, with 5 years of bug fixes and security updates for both the server and desktop editions.

10/28/2015

Ubuntu 15.10 “Wily Werewolf”