On December 8, Canonical's Steve Langasek informed Ubuntu Touch developers that the Ubuntu for phones mobile operating system will support the s390x (also known as IBM System z) hardware architecture for the landing silos.

As the Ubuntu developers are preparing for the upcoming LTS (Long-Term Support) release of the GNU/Linux operating system, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), and because the IBM System z hardware architecture will be officially supported, Canonical has added s390x to the list of supported architectures used for landings.

The s390x arch has been added just to make sure that the Ubuntu Touch packages uploaded to the respective silos are built successfully for all supported hardware architectures, which means that when a client stack-related package fails to build on an unsupported architecture, it won't be blocked from inclusion in the distribution.

"This will enable packages uploaded these silos to again built for all architectures, and avoid the situation that packages will build successfully in the silo, be published, and then have to block again waiting for an s390x build in -proposed," said Steve Langasek, Ubuntu Foundations.

Ubuntu Phone users are not affected in any way

According to Mr. Langasek, the inclusion of the s390x hardware architecture in the landing silo PPAs (Personal Package Archives) for the Ubuntu Touch operating system will have no effect on Ubuntu Phone users, and it should also have no effect the Ubuntu Touch developers.

The announcement was made just to inform everyone involved in the development of the Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system that they will see the s390x architecture in places that they haven't seen it before, so it should come as a warning for future Ubuntu Touch landers.

In the meantime, the Ubuntu Touch developers should concentrate their efforts on landing new features to the upcoming OTA-9 software update, which should arrive for all supported Ubuntu Phone devices next year, on January 20, 2016.