14 DAY TRIAL // Linus Torvalds has officially kicked off today the development cycle of the next major Linux kernel series, Linux 5.4, by releasing the first RC (Release Candidate) milestone to public testers.
It's been two weeks since the release of the Linux 5.3 kernel series, and the merge window for Linux kernel 5.4 is now officially closed, which means that the development cycle can start and weekly RC (Release Candidate) builds will be released to allow the community to test it and send feedback.
The first Linux kernel 5.4 Release Candidate build is now available to download from kernel.org or through our free Linux software portal if you want to take it for test drive, but please be aware that this is an early development release that should not be installed on production machines.
As for the new features that will be implemented in the Linux 5.4 kernel series, we can mention the controversial lockdown functionality, AMD DRM improvements, the usual updated drivers, mostly for GPU, networking, sound, staging, as well as documentation and filesystems changes.
”Nothing major stands out, the most notable may be the long-pending lockdown patches that weren't all that big, but that now finally aren't tied to just EFI secure boot, so you can test them out other ways too,” said Linus Torvalds in a mailing list announcement.
Linux kernel 5.4 expected to be released in mid-November
The final release of the Linux 5.4 kernel series is expected to be released sometime in November, either on the 17th if Linus Torvalds will publish only seven RC (Release Candidate) builds, or on the 24th if the development process takes longer and there's need for an eighth Release Candidate.
Either way, users will be able to upgrade their computers to the Linux kernel 5.4 most probably in early December when the first point release hits the streets and marks the series as ready for mass deployments. Until then, go out and test the latest Release Candidate and report any issue you may encounter with your hardware.