Linux 4.8-rc4 is now ready for public testing

Aug 28, 2016 22:48 GMT  ·  By

It's Sunday evening, so guess what you'll be doing in the next few hours? Yes, that's right, Linus Torvalds has just announced the fourth RC (Release Candidate) version of the upcoming Linux 4.8 kernel branch.

The development of Linux kernel 4.8 continues today with the Release Candidate 4 (RC4) snapshot, and according to Linus Torvalds, things are looking quite normal at this stage. At the same time, it also seems that this is the smallest RC to date, the biggest new feature being a fix for an Intel Skylake power management bug. However, there are also the usual updated drivers, Arch improvements, and some KVM changes.

"Everything looks normal, and it's been a bit quieter than rc3 too, so hopefully we're well into the 'it's calming down' phase. Although with the usual timing-related fluctuation (different maintainers stagger their pulls differently), it's hard to tell a trend yet," says Linus Torvalds in today's announcement. "Regardless, it all looks pretty small."

Final Linux kernel 4.8 release to land at the end of September

Now that we're able to take the fourth Release Candidate build of the Linux 4.8 kernel for a test drive on our PCs, its development cycle will continue, and next week, we will get our hands on the RC5 milestone. After that, there should be only two RCs left, RC6 and RC7, until the final Linux kernel 4.8 release hits the streets, which should happen at the end of September.

Until then, we invite you to download the Linux kernel 4.8 Release Candidate 4 sources right now via our website or directly from kernel.org and report any bugs you might encounter. We should also warn you not to replace your stable kernel with this one, nor install it on a production-ready operating system. This is a pre-release build intended for testing purposes only.