14 DAY TRIAL // The third RC for the Linux Kernel 3.19 branch has been announced by Linus Torvalds and it's now available for download and testing. The development cycle continues without interruption and everything is on track.
The fact that we had quite a long holiday period didn't slow the kernel development process and it looks like things are still on track. The previous RC proved a little bit smaller, but that was around Christmas so it was to be expected. Now, the devs are back at work and they will soon begin to annoy Linus with huge patches.
Things have been very calm in the 3.19 branch, but it's still early. There is plenty of time left in the cycle, although it's quite possible we'll have a rather uneventful launch, and if all things go well, we might get the final version in a month or so.
Linux Kernel 3.19 RC3 is just another step
Because many of the developers took some time off for the holidays, the kernel seems to have calmed down. Linus noticed this and he is quite happy. He doesn't really like large patches that add a lot of code and he often said that he enjoys when devs remove code from the kernel.
"It's a day delayed - not because of any particular development issues, but simply because I was tiling a bathroom yesterday. But rc3 is out there now, and things have stayed reasonably calm. I really hope that implies that 3.19 is looking good, but it's equally likely that it's just that people are still recovering from the holiday season," wrote Linus in a mailist list message.
As usual, most of the changes are about new or modified drivers, but there are also some Arch fixes and various file system improvements. You can download the source package for Linux kernel 3.19 RC right now from Softpedia. Please keep in mind that it needs to be compiled and that you really need to know what you are doing.