Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Rebased to Linux Kernel 4.4.5 LTS, Final Beta Arrives March 24

Another week, another newsletter from the Ubuntu Kernel Team, informing the community about the latest work done in preparation for the upcoming Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system.



Canonical's Joseph Salisbury has just published news to inform us that the software repositories of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS received new kernel packages on the day of March 15, 2016, rebasing the Xenial kernel on the latest long-term supported kernel branch, Linux 4.4.5.
We are already running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) on some of our computers here at Softpedia, and we can confirm that the new kernel version landed in the repositories, which means that early adopters can install it right now if they dist-upgrade their installations.
"Our Xenial kernel has been rebased to v4.4.5 and is available for testing in the -proposed pocket of the archive, i.e. linux-4.4.0-14.30," stated the Ubuntu kernel developers in the newsletter. "It should promote to -updates shortly. Please test and let us know your results."
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Beta coming March 24, 2016 In the newsletter, the Ubuntu Kernel Team also informs those who need to pull kernel patches to the archive that the Kernel Freeze stage for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) is currently set for April 7, so they should submit them as soon as possible. However, until then, we will have the Final Beta of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on our hands.
The final release of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) launches worldwide on April 21, 2016, and it will ship with the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel, which the Ubuntu kernel developers will try to keep updated and in sync with the upstream kernel releases. In the first week of May 2016, we will publish an in-depth review of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.