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Ubuntu 16.10 To Be Powered By Linux Kernel 4.8 (softpedia.com)
Reader prisoninmate shares a Softpedia report: We've been monitoring the Ubuntu 16.10 development cycle for quite some time now to see what Linux kernel version the upcoming GNU/Linux operating system will be based on, and for now, it remains powered by the same kernel packages as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus). Also, it looks like Ubuntu 16.10 has been switched to a universal local DNS resolver service. However, the Ubuntu Kernel Team published the other day a new installation of their weekly newsletter, informing the community that Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) would soon be rebased on the latest stable Linux 4.6 kernels. Then, it will move to the Release Candidate builds of Linux kernel 4.7, and after that, the operating system will finally be switched to Linux kernel 4.8.
I hate to break it to you, but the code-naming convention is nothing specific to Ubuntu, they just get slightly more silly about it with their alliteration, and the names are more user-visible, which isn't surprising considering there's a whole lot more overlap between the user and development base. I do wish fewer people would use them though, the version number is far more concise and informative. But then I wish the same thing about OS X and its silly cat names - Is Panther newer or older than Leopard, and where does Lion fit into things? At least with Ubuntu the code names are in alphabetical order.
It's not limited to the "cute" OSes either. Perhaps you've used a few of: Sparta, Snowball, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Millenium, Razzle, Wolfpack, Whistler, Freestyle, Longhorn, Blackcomb, Blue, and Threshold. All versions of Windows, though at least they have the good taste not to put the name on the box.
As for the configuration files - I hate to break it to you, but Windows and OS X do the same thing. They just don't publicize it, so if you don't see an option you tend to assume it doesn't exist. There's a LOT of extra options in both that you can only modify by directly editing configuration files or the registry. If you've never run into a problem that can only be solved by serious registry editing consider yourself lucky. Or unlucky, if you resorted to reinstalling windows from scratch instead.
Where the command line is concerned, it's usually not that common settings can't be changed through the GUI, it's just that when someone asks for help, it's much easier for an expert to tell them "type these two lines into the terminal and paste the output back here if it doesn't solve the problem" than trying to hand-hold them through navigating the GUI alternative and then try to extract useful information from them afterwards. Just the initial "try this" post will probably be 10x as long, and require walking through the GUI yourself to make sure you don't skip any windows or tab-changes that will confuse the asker. Believe me, that's a headache worth avoiding whenever possible, especially since most askers are terrible at following directions perfectly, just want their problem solved, and won't learn anything useful from the process regardless. If Windows had a similarly powerful and convenient command line you'd see the exact same thing in Windows help forums. That you don't is far more a symptom of Window's anemic command line than a lack of Linux GUI options.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.