The Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) development cycle is powering on, and it looks like Canonical is determined to have Linux kernel 4.2 available as soon as possible.

One of the interesting aspects of Ubuntu is that, usually, developers will stick with the kernel that was available at the time of the launch. In this case, it's possible that Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) will ship with Linux kernel 4.2. Upgrading to Linux kernel 4.3 is not out of the question, but it's very unlikely. The Ubuntu development cycle and the Linux kernel cycle are not matched in any way, so it's impossible to say ahead of time what version of the kernel will be implemented.

A typical cycle for the Linux kernel is eight weeks, but that's just the ideal case. Problems can appear along the way and development can pushed back, so it's difficult even for Ubuntu kernel maintainers to see what's happening. The good news is that Canonical always aims to have the latest version, and right now 4.2 is being worked on. A new RC has been pushed into the repositories for Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf).

Ubuntu 15.10 now with Linux kernel 4.2 RC6

Linus Torvalds will probably release a new stable Linux kernel in about two weeks, if everything goes according to plan. This will give Ubuntu kernel maintainers plenty of time to integrate it and maybe even get some updates for it.

"We have rebased our Wily master-next branch to the latest upstream v4.2-rc6 and uploaded to our ~canonical-kernel-team PPA. We are still fixing up DKMS packages before we proceed uploading to the archive," said Canonical's Joseph Salisbury in his regular email update.

You can download the Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) daily build right now from Softpedia and give it a try.