The Ubuntu Online Summit started just a few moments ago, and you can watch the Ubuntu Engineering team live right now talking about the features planned for the next Ubuntu release.

We reported last week that the development of the Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) operating system had begun, with daily live ISO images being made available for early adopters and public testers who want to track the development cycle of the upcoming Ubuntu release.

Dubbed Yakkety Yak by Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu 16.10 will be officially released later this year, on October 20, bringing various improvements and refinements to existing components, such as Ubuntu Software, which will make installing snaps and fonts much easier.

However, one of the most anticipated features of the Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) was the Unity 8 desktop environment, which, unfortunately, won't be the default session for the upcoming operating system, as the development of Unity 8 is still under heavy development.

Among other interesting features that should be implemented in Ubuntu 16.10 later this year, we can mention the removal of most of the Python 2 dependencies from the image, migration to the PackageKit 1.0 series, and move the OS to systemd for the user session, which still uses UpStart.

We'll keep you informed and bring you the latest Ubuntu news from the Ubuntu Online Summit 2016, which takes place on May 3-5, as soon as we find out more. Tomorrow, Mark Shuttleworth will be present starting 18:00 UTC for a QA session with various members of the Ubuntu community.