A new stable version of the kernel is out

Jun 22, 2015 07:06 GMT  ·  By

Linus Torvalds announced just a few minutes ago the release of the Linux kernel 4.1. The development cycle for this branch of the Linux kernel is now complete, and we'll soon move to the next one, probably 4.2.

Most Linux kernel cycles are calm, with a few exceptions. From time to time, something happens that warrants the attention of Linux Torvalds or of the people involved in some particular subsystem, but fortunately for us, it's not the case with the latest version. Now that Linux kernel 4.1 has been released, it's time to look forward to the next iteration of the kernel, especially now that the merge window has been opened.

When a kernel is made available with no incidents, everyone is happy, not just Linus Torvalds. Many developers are just waiting to implement each new version of the kernel, and having one that went through some rough patches is not ideal. Many distributions will probably choose to offer or integrate this particular version of the Linux kernel, and that will happen very soon.

Linux kernel 4.1 is now available for download

If you have the necessary knowledge, you can download Linux kernel 4.1 right now and compile it yourself. If not, then you will have to wait until it hits the official repositories for the distributions you're using.

"I'm not sure if it was quiet because there really were no problems (knock wood), or if people decided to be considerate of my vacation, but whatever the reason, I appreciate it. It's not like the 4.1 release cycle was particularly painful, and let's hope that the extra week of letting it sit makes for a great release. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, considering that 4.1 will also be a LTS release." wrote Linus Torvalds in his regular message.

LTS stands for Long Term Support, which means that we'll be seeing this branch of the kernel for a long time. Unlike distributions, the duration of the support for an LTS kernel is not known in advance, so we can't tell you how long it will last, but we can tell you some of the features.

The kernel devs have added a new Nouveau DRM driver that brings support for NVIDIA Geforce GTX 750, the EXT4 file system now has support for file-system level encryption, better support for the Intel Atom processors (Bay Trail), support for the new Intel Skylake, and some improvements for Btrfs.

The merge window for the next version, 4.2, is open, and that means we'll probably have a new RC ready in a couple of weeks.