GCC 7 Now Default Compiler in Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark), Qt 5.9 Coming Soon

Last week when we reported on the upcoming Feature Freeze stage for Ubuntu 17.10, which is currently set for August 24, we also told you that the GCC 7, Python 3, Perl 5.26, and libevent transitions are still in progress. As of today, Canonical reports that GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) 7 is the default compiler in Artful. Canonical says that this major changed unblocked many of the packages that had been stuck in the artful-proposed repository, including the new Linux 4.12 kernel packages. It also looks like the Perl 5.26 transition is complete, which unblocked more of those stuck packages in Ubuntu 17.10’s proposed repo.