Ubuntu 15.04 Launches With Support For OpenStack Kilo, New LXD Hypervisor And Snappy Core

Canonical today announced that the next version of Ubuntu, 15.04 Vivid Vervet, will be available for download on Thursday. This release introduces a couple of new features for desktop users, but most of the important updates center around server deployments.

It’s no secret that Ubuntu has put quite a bit of its muscle behind the open source OpenStack cloud computing platform, and this latest release comes with a pre-release version of the next version of OpenStack, which is scheduled for release on April 30. Among other things, this upcoming “Kilo” release of OpenStack features updates to the platform’s network stack and identity federation service.

lxd_takeoverThis update also introduces Canonical’s LXD (Linux Container Daemon) hypervisor for container deployments (which also works with OpenStack). This new hypervisor, which the company announced around the last OpenStack Summit in Paris last November, builds on Ubuntu’s LXC project, which also forms the basis of Docker and its container technology.

Canonical argues that LXD lets you “take all the speed and efficiency of Docker and turn it into a full virtualisation experience.”

Essentially, LXD aims to give developers access to the both of the old-school virtualization experience and containers. While the early reaction to LXD made it seem like a competitor to Docker, LXD can also be used to run Docker containers, so the competition will be more about developer mind share and container management tools than the container architecture itself.

This new version of Ubuntu is also the first one to offer a stable version of Canonical’s Snappy Ubuntu Core, the company’s stripped-down version of its operating system for container hosts and small connected devices. You can read more about Snappy in our earlier coverage here.