14 DAY TRIAL // As of today, August 16, 2017, the upcoming Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) operating system has been rebased on the current stable Linux kernel series, namely Linux 4.12.
We reported last week that Canonical's Ubuntu Kernel Team started work on a Linux 4.12-based kernel for Raspberry Pi 2 single-board computers, and those packages were available from the artful-proposed repository until today when they've been promoted to the stable channel.
If you run Ubuntu 17.10 on your personal computer, and you update it to the latest available packages from the stable repos, you'll automatically receive the new Linux 4.12 kernel, which Canonical's Ubuntu Kernel Team says in their latest newsletter that was published earlier today it's based on Linux kernel 4.12.7.
Canonical to target a Linux 4.13 kernel for the final Ubuntu 17.10 release
Of course, this is just the first step towards the migration to the Linux 4.13 kernel, which is Canonical's target for the final release of Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) later this year on October 19. At the moment, Linux kernel 4.13 is still in development, and the Ubuntu 17.10 Kernel Freeze is set for October 5, 2017.
In other words, if you've decided to run Ubuntu 17.10 on a regular basis, don't get used to the Linux 4.12 kernel, as it will soon be replaced by a Linux 4.13-based kernel when the final release launches early next month. Until then, you can find the most recent RC5 build in Canonical's mainline kernel PPA.
It should be noted that the Linux 4.12 kernel packages that landed earlier in Ubuntu 17.10's stable repositories will automatically replace the Linux 4.11 kernel ones that were used until today. You just have to run the "sudo apt autoremove" command and they'll will be automatically purged.
In the meantime, Canonical's Ubuntu Desktop team continues the Unity to GNOME Shell transition for the final Ubuntu 17.10 release, making quite some progress and implementing many improvements. We'll keep you guys updated as soon as the new design with the always visible dock hits the stable channel.