Today, July 4, 2016, Linus Torvalds has had the pleasure of announcing the availability of the sixth Release Candidate (RC) version of the upcoming Linux 4.7 kernel, now ready for public testing.
We were expecting to see Linux kernel 4.7 RC6 land on Sunday, July 3, but it didn't happen. Instead, Linus Torvalds decided to release it one day later, with a quite brief summary where he informs us that things have gotten a little bigger this time, and hopefully, it won't happen again next week for the final Release Candidate build.
"I'd love to tell you that things are calming down, and we're shrinking, but that would be a lie," says Linus Torvalds in today's announcement. "It's not like this is a huge RC, but it's definitely bigger than the previous rc's were. I don't think that's necessarily a big problem, it seems to be mostly timing."
This Release Candidate build is slightly bigger than the previous ones because it suddenly received merges from most of the subsystems, including networking, GPU changes, as well as the usual device driver updates. According to Linus Torvalds, the networking changes are the most obvious part.
Linux kernel 4.7 could arrive on July 17
However, we have to admit that this was one of the quietest development cycles of the Linux kernel. We're already at the sixth Release Candidate, which means that there could be one more left if things get back to normal next week. This also means that the launch of Linux kernel 4.7 is upon us, and it should hit the streets in two weeks, on July 17.
Until then, you are urged to download the Linux kernel 4.7 RC6 sources from either our website or via kernel.org, compile and install it on a computer that you use only for testing purposes, and report any issues. If Linus Torvalds decides that there will be the need for an eight Release Candidate, the launch of Linux kernel 4.7 will happen on July 24, 2016.
