Today, April 21, 2016, Canonical has launched the Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus" release as the sixth LTS version of the Linux kernel-based operating system for both desktops and servers.

We've already told you everything there is to know about the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Desktop, and we would now like to inform our readers about the new features Canonical has implemented in the Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS release, which is the first of its kind to support IBM's LinuxONE mainframe computers.

"Ubuntu 16.04 LTS includes a new port to 64-bit z/Architecture for IBM mainframe computers. This is a practically complete port of Ubuntu Server and Cloud with circa 95% binary package availability. We are excited to enable OpenStack software, Juju, MAAS, LXD, and much more on this platform," says Canonical.

Release highlights of Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) include the final LXD 2.0 pure-container manager with a VM-like experience built on top of Linux Containers (LXC), along with first GA release of the Nova driver (nova-lxd), Juju 2.0, Docker 1.10, libvirt 1.3.1, QEMU 2.5, Open vSwitch 2.5.0, as well as Ceph Jewel 10.1.2 RC.

Also new in the Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS release is support for remote kernel crash dumps in the Linux kernel crash dump mechanism, which makes it possible to send kernel crash dumps to a remote server using either the SSH (Secure Shell) or NFS (Network File System) protocols.

OpenStack Mitaka is included by default

One of the most impressive features of Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS is the latest OpenStack release, Mitaka, which consists of the OpenStack Identity (Keystone), OpenStack Imaging (Glance), OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder), OpenStack Compute (Nova), and OpenStack Networking (Neutron) components.

OpenStack Telemetry (Ceilometer and Aodh), OpenStack Orchestration (Heat), OpenStack Dashboard (Horizon), OpenStack Object Storage (Swift), OpenStack Database as a Service (Trove), OpenStack DNS (Designate), OpenStack Bare-metal (Ironic), OpenStack Filesystem (Manila), OpenStack Key Manager (Barbican) are also included.

Download the Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) ISO images right now.