Will Ubuntu point releases include a new Linux kernel?

12.04.2 includes Kernel 3.5 along with a newer Xorg, as part of the hardware enablement package, which is available here:

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

Do note that the Ubuntu image ISOs are also updated to use the new stack, so if you are doing new installations and want to keep the released 12.04 stack, you need to install from the older ISOs. These kernel upgrades are also not offered as part of normal upgrades, so there's no need to worry that you'll be upgraded from one major kernel version to the other. See the wiki page for more information.

The 3.2 kernel released with 12.04 will continue to be maintained for the life time (5 years) of precise. (and also Debian Wheezy)

• Also, Ubuntu will generally work with mainline kernels. Binary builds are provided by the kernel team. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds

This is a new policy. The decision to have such a updated kernel and Xorg was decided at the 2012 Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) in Oakland.

The most exciting feature about 3.5 (IMHO), Seccomp2, is part of the Precise 3.2 kernel.

• http://packages.qa.dev.stgraber.org/qatracker/milestones/223/builds/16265/downloads
• http://packages.qa.dev.stgraber.org/qatracker/milestones/223/builds/16265/testcases/1301/results

Not officially. LTS releases typically don't change kernel versions; see 10.04 Lucid -- it's still on the 2.6.x series.

But note these exceptions:

• Changes/patches that affect stability, security, etc. are typically backported from 3.5, etc. by the Ubuntu kernel team into the 3.2 series for 12.04.
• Optional "LTS backport" kernels will be provided, based on the kernel series bundled in each future non-LTS release, which you may choose to install. These are not supported and probably haven't been tested as extensively by Canonical as the regular updated kernels
  • These backported kernel packages are typically named linux-image-...-lts-backport-RELEASE, e.g. 10.04 LTS has linux-image-...-lts-backport-maverick, linux-image-...-lts-backport-natty, etc.
  • See the full kernel release map here
• If you want the cutting-edge, you can directly install the "mainline" kernel builds, but in that case you may as well upgrade to the next Ubuntu non-LTS versions...