14 DAY TRIAL // Linus Torvalds has recently announced a new Linux kernel release candidate, but the bigger news isn’t necessarily related to this new update.
Torvalds has also revealed that he upgraded his computer, and while this isn’t necessarily surprising, the configuration he embraced actually is.
“For the first time in about 15 years, my desktop isn't Intel-based,” Torvalds announced on Sunday.
Certainly, the switch from Intel to anything else is a major hit for the company so many people refer to as Chipzilla, but on the other hand, it’s something that has become more common these days.
Beginning this week, Torvalds is using an AMD-powered system, and by the looks of things, he’s totally impressed with how everything is working right now on the Threadripper 3970x-powered system.
“My 'allmodconfig' test builds are now three times faster than they used to be, which doesn't matter so much right now during the calming down period, but I will most definitely notice the upgrade during the next merge window,” he said.
The future of Linux on ARM
And there’s a little something that Torvalds included in his announcement that could hint at another important change in the long term.
“I didn’t switch to ARM yet,” he said (emphasis is ours), and this suggests that ARM isn’t totally out of the table at this point.
As for the new Linux kernel release candidate, everything is quite normal at this point, so we’re getting a bunch of fixes, as well as GPU, networking, and other drivers. There are also some various other small patches, but other than, it’s just a typical release.
“Not the smallest we've had, not the largest. It's right in the middle of the pack,” Torvalds says in a short statement that perfectly describes this new Linux kernel release candidate.