14 DAY TRIAL // Linux creator Linus Torvalds has kicked off the development of the next major kernel branch, Linux 4.16, with the first release candidate build, giving users a first look at the new changes.
It's been two weeks since the release of the Linux 4.15 kernel series, the first to come with the complete set of patches against the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities that affect billions of devices, but only for x86 and PowerPC (PPC) architectures, which means that the merge window for Linux kernel 4.16 is now closed.
Therefore, the development cycle of the Linux 4.16 kernel kicks off with the first release candidate, which is now available for public testing, and it looks like it will be a quiet one as there aren't any major patches pending or anything out of the ordinary, but not a major release either, according to Linus Torvalds.
"I don't want to jinx anything, but things certainly look a lot better than with [Linux] 4.15. We have no (known) nasty surprises pending, and there were no huge issues during the merge window. Fingers crossed that this stays fairly calm and sane," says Linus Torvalds in the mailing list announcement for Linux kernel 4.16 RC1.
Includes Meltdown and Spectre patches for non-x86 architectures
According to Linus Torvalds' mergelog, Linux 4.16 will include the promised Meltdown and Spectre patches for non-x86 architectures, such as ARM. However, while only 5 percent of the ARM processors available on the market are affected by these nasty hardware bugs, with Linux kernel 4.16 they'll be patched as well.
Other than that, Linux kernel 4.16 promises to bring several updated GPU drivers, especially for AMD Radeon graphics cards, but also for various networking, sound, SCSI, InfiniBand, media, and smaller subsystems, along with some more improvements for the x86 architecture, smaller core networking changes, as well as filesystem, documentation, and tooling updates.
Linus Torvalds invites those who want to take the next Linux kernel branch for a test drive on their GNU/Linux distributions to "go out and test" by downloading the Linux kernel 4.16 RC1 source tarball from kernel.org, compile, and install it on their machines. However, please try to keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, so don't replace your stable kernel with it, nor deploy it in production environments.
The final release of the Linux 4.16 kernel is expected in early April, either on the 1st or the 8th, depending on the number of release candidates that will be released during its development cycle. Until then, you should update your GNU/Linux distributions to the latest stable release, Linux kernel 4.15, as soon as possible.