by 
Two week have passed since the release of Linux kernel 5.9 and the merge window for the next major release, Linux kernel 5.10, is now officially closed, which means it’s time for the Release Candidates.
As expected, Linus Torvalds announced the first Release Candidate (RC) of the upcoming Linux 5.10 kernel series, which looks to be yet another big release with almost 14k commits, but not as big as Linux kernel 5.8 was. However, Linus Torvalds assures us that the merge window didn’t cause any unusual issues and things went “fairly smoothly.”
“This looks to be a bigger release than I expected,” said Linus Torvalds. “I’m not entirely sure whether this is just a general upward trend (we did seem to plateau for a while there), or just a fluke, or perhaps due to [Linux] 5.9 dragging out an extra week. We will see, I guess.”
The most interesting change in Linux kernel 5.10 appears to be the removal of setf_fs() function, which was used to set the FS segment register of an x86 processor. For now, it was only removed from the x86, PowerPC, s390, and RISC-V architectures, with the rest to follow soon.
Of course, that’s not the biggest change in Linux kernel 5.10, which is packed with lots of updated and new drivers, as well as many other improvements and new features to support the newest hardware out there and also boost the overall performance of your systems.
If this looks to be a big release and things get complicated during the testing phase, we’re looking at a final release date near the Christmas holidays, more specifically on December 20th.
To be honest, that actually sounds really great because the merge window for Linux kernel 5.11 will happen between December 20th, 2020, and January 3rd, 2021, which is perfect for everyone involved in the development of the Linux kernel to spend some quality time with their loved ones, especially during these hard times.
Until then, if you want to help with the testing, go ahead and download the first Release Candidate of Linux kernel 5.10 from the kernel.org website. But keep in mind that this is a pre-release version that should not be installed on production machines. Happy hacking!
Last updated 3 years ago
