Ubuntu 17.10 will be released with GNOME 3.26 by default

Sep 16, 2017 11:32 GMT  ·  By

The Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) operating system is only a few weeks away, and it will be shipping with the recently released GNOME 3.26 desktop environment by default, running on top of the next-generation Wayland display server.

During this week, the Ubuntu 17.10 repositories were flooded with packages from the GNOME 3.26 Stack, as the Ubuntu Desktop team managed to upgrade every single GNOME app and core component that will come pre-installed with the upcoming OS, due for release on October 19, 2017.

Those of you using the development version of Ubuntu 17.10 are among the first GNU/Linux users to run the GNOME 3.26 desktop environment on their personal computers and enjoy its new features, but Ubuntu devs are working with the GNOME community on documentation to ease your Unity to GNOME transition.

"We’ve been working with the GNOME community on documentation to help people transitioning from Unity to GNOME and we tracked down and fixed a GDM but which was selecting the wrong session at login. Patches are upstream," said Will Cooke, Ubuntu Desktop Director at Canonical, in his weekly report.

Ubuntu 17.10 will soon be rebased on the Linux 4.13 kernel

Another novelty coming with the Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) operating system this fall is the recently released Linux 4.13 kernel series, which is now ready for deployment on stable systems, and it looks like it's coming soon to Ubuntu 17.10 as well. Linux kernel 4.13 packages are already available for testing in the proposed repos.

In two weeks from today, on September 28, anyone will be able to take Ubuntu 17.10 for a test drive on their PCs as Canonical will release the Final Beta milestone, which will also be available for opt-in flavors like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Studio, or Ubuntu Budgie.