14 DAY TRIAL // The second point release of the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) operating system series is set to arrive as early as next week as a refreshed media to help users easily deploy the Linux OS on new computers.
Dubbed "Bionic Beaver," Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is the latest LTS (Long Term Support) series of the widely used Linux-based operating system, supported by Canonical for at least 5 years, until April 2023, with maintenance and security updates, though Mark Shuttleworth promised a 10-year support for the Bionic Beaver.
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS shipped with the Linux 4.15 kernel by default, and the first point release, Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS, which arrived on July 26, 2018, didn't bring updated kernel and graphics stacks due to Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) being in development. Therefore, Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS should be the first release to change that.
Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS to include a newer kernel and up-to-date components
Now that the Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) operating system is available for some time now, and it ships with a newer kernel from the Linux 4.18 series, we believe Canonical will implement it in the forthcoming Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS point release, along with various other up-to-date components.
We also hope for Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS to include a newer version of the GNOME desktop environment, such as GNOME 3.30, but it could be tricky because it's a long-term supported operating system and stability is more important here than having the latest version of a software application.
The good news however is that those who want to deploy Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) on newer computers will get an up-to-date media so they won't have to download hundreds of updates from the software repositories after installing. Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS is slated for release a week from today, on Thursday, February 7th, 2019.
Update 06/02/19: Canonical delayed the release of Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS until February 14th, 2019. More details here.