The final version of Linux 6.8 may be available very soon. Linux creator Linus Torvalds has decided that a release candidate (rc) 8 version is no longer needed.
The final arrival of Linux 6.8 is imminent and may be as early as next week. Contrary to earlier doubt last week, Torvalds indicates that a final rc-8 version is unlikely to be released and that the release will become final after the last rc-7 update.
Last week, Torvalds doubted whether there should be another rc-8 of Linux 6.8 before the final release. According to him, there were still a fair number of issues in the new kernel to resolve than previously desired. On the other hand, they would still mainly be “simple issues,” especially commits around self-testing.
Rc-7 updates
A few more fixes have been made in the now possibly last rc-7 version of Linux 6.8. These include driver support for the Intel In-Memory Analytics Accelerator for its latest Intel Xeon processors. Also, the latest kernel version supports Google Tensor processors and also helps support the CXL shared memory standard.
Further tweaks in the latest Linux kernel release include Power PC and RISC-V architectures, file system fixes, important networking and mm fixes, and more features for network self-testing.
Normally, Torvalds assumes seven rc versions of a new Linux kernel release. Torvalds is still keeping a crack open for an rc-8 version, but he says it is very unlikely as things stand.
The arrival of Linux 6.8 will be very important for many distributions. For example, Ubuntu has announced that it will base the next long-term releases of its distribution of the open source OS on the final latest kernel version, writes The Register.
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