14 DAY TRIAL // Now that we know the codename of the next Ubuntu release, Ubuntu 18.10, it's time to take a closer look at the release schedule, which suffered some changes for this cycle, and the proposed release date.
Development on Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) kicked off officially earlier this week with the latest GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) 8.1 release, though it's not yet the default system compiler. However, Canonical plans to migrate from GCC 7, which is currently used in the latest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) release to the GCC 8.x series.
We also believe that Ubuntu 18.10 will be shipping with a kernel from the Linux 5.x series as Linus Torvalds himself teased the community with the "unpredictable" release of Linux 5.0 last month when he kicked off the development cycle of the Linux 4.17 kernel series. Python 3.7 and OpenJDK 11 are also on board for this release.
The default desktop environment of Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) will be GNOME 3.30, which will be released on September 5. Usually, GNU/Linux distribution adopt a new major GNOME release after its first point release is out, so Ubuntu 18.10 might be shipping with GNOME 3.30.1, slated for release on September 26, 2018.
Ubuntu 18.10 slated for release on October 18, 2018
While an official release schedule isn't yet set in stone for Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish), as you might have heard lately, the Alpha 1 & 2 and Beta 1 milestones will be dropped entirely for this cycle for all flavors, including Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Budgie, and Ubuntu Kylin.
In their place, there will be so-called "Testing Weeks," as proposed by developer Simon Quigley, which are currently scheduled for May 21-25, 2018, for the first Testing Week, June 25-29, 2018, for the second Testing Week, July 23-27, 2018, for the third Testing Week, and August 27-31, 2018, for the fourth Testing Week.
The "Final Beta" milestone, for Ubuntu, or "Beta 2" for opt-in flavors was replaced as well for this cycle, with just a Beta release, which will hit the streets on September 27, 2018, for Ubuntu and all of its official flavors. After that, the final release of Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) should be released on October 18, 2018.