Canonical introduces Ubuntu AWS rolling kernel for Ubuntu 18.04

Canonical announced that the default Linux kernel in the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS AMI (Amazon Machine Images) is moving to a rolling kernel model.

It is reported that, so far, the Ubuntu image of AWS has been using the ordinary Linux kernel, and it will be updated whenever new security updates are available. With the new rolling model, the kernel in the Ubuntu AWS image will immediately get all the latest fixes, performance adjustments, and security patches from upstream when it is available.

Canonical wrote:

“The Ubuntu rolling kernel model provides the latest upstream bug fixes and performance improvements around task scheduling, I/O scheduling, networking, hypervisor guests and containers to our users. Canonical has been following this model in other cloud environments for some time now, and have found it to be an excellent way to deliver these benefits while continuing to provide LTS level stability.”

The rolling kernel model will be applied to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) Amazon Machine Images, which will upgrade users from the regular Linux 4.15 kernel to the Linux 5.0 kernel of the Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) distribution. Available as a preview of the Linux-aws-edge kernel and recommended only for non-production deployments.