14 DAY TRIAL // Well, it happened, after all, the Linux 4.14 LTS kernel series just received today the eight and last Release Candidate (RC) development snapshot, which delays the final release with one week.
Sad news today for those who have hoped to upgrade their GNU/Linux distributions to Linux kernel 4.14 LTS as Linus Torvalds announced a few moments ago the availability for testing of the eighth and last Release Candidate of the next long-term supported Linux kernel series, supported for the next six years.
The release of RC8 delays the final release of Linux kernel 4.14 LTS with a week. Of course, this also means that the merge window for the Linux 4.15 kernel series will be pushed into Thanksgiving week, which isn't quite what Linus Torvalds expected as he'll be on vacation with his family.
"This rc8 does mean that the latter half of the next merge window will be during the Thanksgiving week, when I'm on vacation with the family. We'll see how that goes. I'm hoping that people will just send me stuff early (particularly since there's now an extra week of 4.14)," said Linus Torvalds in the mailing list announcement.
Linux kernel 4.14 LTS to be released on November 12, 2017
That being said, we are now looking at November 12, 2017, for the final release of the Linux 4.14 LTS kernel series, which will come to select GNU/Linux distributions by the end of the month. However, if you fancy compiling your own kernel, you'll be able to install it beginning next Sunday.
In the meantime, you can download Linux kernel 4.14 RC8 right now from kernel.org or via our website if you want to take the last Release Candidate for a test drive. But remember that this is a still a pre-release version, so don't replace your stable kernel with it, nor deploy it in a production environment.