14 DAY TRIAL // The development for Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) is moving forwards and developers have already added some packages from the GNOME 3.16 stack, which will make quite a few users happy.
Canonical decided to stay with the GNOME 3.12 branch for quite a while and only recently upgraded to GNOME 3.14, which was a definite plus. Now it looks like Ubuntu devs are ready to move on to the 3.16 branch of GNOME. It won’t bring any major visible changes, but any upgrades are welcome.
Moving to 3.16 is a big deal because some of the packages upgraded bring numerous complications with them. Getting the latest Disks or Eye of GNOME won’t affect the distribution too much, but bringing the latest version of GTK is a real challenge as it affects the OS in numerous ways.
Most of the time, Canonical needs to patch a lot of packages so that they can work together with Unity, and that’s not a walk in the park. The philosophy is that as long as it works and it fits your needs you don't really need to upgrade just for the sake of it.
Just a few packages have been updated so far
Not all of the GNOME packages have been upgraded, but they are slowly being brought over to the Ubuntu platform. Unlike other operating systems that are using GNOME packages, Ubuntu doesn't need to use everything from the same branch. It's quite possible to get the latest Nautilus, but an older version of the terminal.
The end users might now even spot the difference, but other distros will appreciate it more, like Ubuntu GNOME for example. In any case, the packages that have been upgraded so far are GNOME Keyring, Zenity, Orca, Eye of GNOME, and a few other libraries. More are sure to come in the near future.