Linux 4.6-rc3 is now available for public testing

Apr 11, 2016 03:00 GMT  ·  By

It's Sunday evening in the US, so we probably don't even have to tell our dedicated Linux readers what we're about to announce in this article because they're probably already testing Linux 4.6-rc3.

Yes, that's right, Linus Torvalds has made available his regular Sunday release for the next RC build of the upcoming Linux 4.6 kernel, which early adopters can download and compile as we speak (see download options at the end of the article).

At the moment of writing this article, Linus Torvalds still hasn't prepared an official announcement, but most certainly, Linux kernel 4.6 Release Candidate 3 comes with the regular improvements and bug fixes for filesystems, architectures, networking stack, sound stack, as well as driver updates.

Right now, we are waiting for Mr. Torvalds to make the release of Linux kernel 4.6 RC3 official and see what he has to say about the progress of the development cycle of the next major kernel version, which should see the light of day sometime at the end of next month. We will update the article as soon as Linus Torvalds makes his regular announcement.

Linux kernel 4.6 RC3 now available for download

If you plan on spending your Sunday evening testing the third Release Candidate of Linux kernel 4.6, we're informing you that the sources are now available for download from the kernel.org website, and you can also get them via our website, whichever suits you best.

As usual, please try not to replace the stable kernel of your GNU/Linux operating system with this pre-release version. For more information about what exactly has been changed in Linux kernel 4.6 RC3, you should consult the diff from the previous Release Candidate build or wait for Mr. Torvalds' announcement, which should be available later today.

Update: Linus Torvalds published his regular announcement at the moment of writing this article, but apparently not in the place where we expected to be see it. "It's become a pattern that rc3 is larger than rc2 (my explanation is that it takes a while for people to start finding issues, together with people taking a breather after the merge window), so that part isn't surprising," said Mr. Torvalds.