Linux 4.4 Is Preparing To Land In Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

The Linux 4.4 kernel is now effectively just one step away from landing within Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus" LTS.

Ubuntu's Kernel Team has pushed their first Linux 4.4 build into the xenial-proposed archive, which soon enough will then land in the main archive. The Linux 4.4 details and confirmation of it hitting Xenial proposed was announced on Tuesday via the kernel team's newsletter.

While Linux 4.5 is now in development and it has many new features and improvements (particularly for graphics drivers!), Linux 4.5 isn't being targeted for Ubuntu 16.04.0. Due to Ubuntu 16.04 being a Long-Term Support release and being planned for release in April, that's too close of a call for ensuring the stability of Linux 4.5 as its base kernel. However, as usual, with later LTS point releases that offer new hardware enablement support, a Linux 4.5+ kernel will end up working its way to Xenial LTS users many months down the road. At least it's easy for those willing to hop over to the bleeding-edge Linux 4.5 kernel via the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel Archive.