The topic After one of its choppiest preview cycles in years, Linux 7.0 is almost ready is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
Linux 7.0’s kernel hasn’t had the best of release candidate phases. From the get-go, the release candidates showed more commit activity than usual, which sounds like it should be a good thing, but it really isn’t. The release candidates aren’t where new features get added; it’s where features that have been added undergo testing. Therefore, the more activity a build has, the buggier it is.
Fortunately, while Linux 7.0’s release candidates were having problems, Linus Torvalds forged ahead with the intended release plan, as he saw the commits were addressing many smaller bugs rather than fixing large, showstopping ones. It seems his moxie paid off, as Linux 7.0 is finally getting the final bits and pieces polished up before its big release on April 12th.
If you need catching up, Linux 7.0’s preview builds were pretty rough. The problems arose around release candidate 2, where Linus Torvalds said he noticed that the kernel candidate was “some of the biggest in recent history.” Release candidate 3 looked to be even bigger, and while Linus was a little uneasy about the trend, he still stuck to his original release plan, stating that the fixes, while plentiful, were on the smaller side in terms of severity.
Release candidate 5 came around, and things were finally looking up. Then, release candidate 6 showed Linus that the calm “was a mirage” and the number of tweaks was back in the higher-than-usual range. Still, Linus stood by his original idea not to delay the launch.
Now, as spotted by Phoronix, the Linux 7.0 kernel is looking to be full speed ahead toward its April 12th release without any delays. If something truly disastrous happens in the next few days, then yes, it might get pushed back. However, there has already been plenty of time to find bugs of this severity, so the kernel looks pretty good right now.
It’s worth noting that, while Linux 7.0 features a shiny new version number, it’s not a drastic upgrade from 6.19’s kernel. Linus doesn’t believe in numbering versions by feature, and instead resets the counter when he runs out of fingers and toes to count on. So, while reaching version 7.0 is still a really cool milestone in terms of Linux’s history, it won’t be as big a jump as, say, Windows 10 to 11.