Canonical, the firm behind the Linux-based Ubuntu Touch mobile OS, has announced a 17 October launch date for Saucy Salamander, an OS release that includes Touch and which can be installed on a range of Google Nexus devices – Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10.

Canonical’s QA community coordinator Nicholas Skaggs, in a blog, said kinks in the new release are being ironed out.

The Android move follows Canonical’s failed crowd-funding effort to launch Ubuntu Edge, its own smartphone.

In an interview with the UK’s Guardian, however, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth claimed that smartphone manufacturers have been intrigued by the Ubuntu open platform, hinting perhaps that the production of an Ubuntu Edge smartphone cannot be discounted just yet.