14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier today, December 28, Linus Torvalds has been happy to announce the release and immediate availability for download and testing of the seventh RC (Release Candidate) build of the upcoming Linux 4.4 LTS kernel.
According to Mr. Torvalds, Linux kernel 4.4 LTS RC7 is an even tinier release than the rest of the Release Candidate versions published until now, but this is mainly because of the winter holidays and the fact the most of the kernel developers are taking a break from all these. However, the seventh RC build of Linux kernel 4.4 LTS might not be the last after all.
"Christmas is over, and New Year's Eve looms, but there is no rest for kernel developers, and rc7 is out there," said Linus Torvalds. "I expect more of the same for next week, when I'd almost certainly ready to just release the final 4.4, but will probably do an rc8 just to not open the merge window while people are still recovering from the holidays."
What's new in Linux kernel 4.4 LTS RC7
Looking at the appended diff from Linux kernel 4.4 LTS Release Candidate 6, we can notice that the RC7 build consists of numerous updates to the SPARC hardware architecture, but also some minor changes to the PA-RISC, ARM, x86, and Arc architectures. Several drivers were updated as well, mostly for things like sound, GPU, and MTD.
Lastly, the seventh RC build of Linux kernel 4.4 LTS includes a few build updates, but other than that, everything is insignificant. Those of you who want to take it for a test drive can download the Linux kernel 4.4 LTS RC7 sources right now via Softpedia or from the kernel.org website, fire up their favorite terminal emulator and start compiling by hand.
As usual, we remind you all not to install these kernel versions in production environments because they are pre-release offerings. As Linus Torvalds noted above, the final release of the Linux kernel 4.4 should be out in mid-January, which means that it will receive yet another Release Candidate build next Sunday. Happy testing!