Linux 3.13 Kernel Development Will Be Dragged Out

Linus Torvalds plans on extending the time until the Linux 3.13 kernel release officially happens. The final release will take place around mid-January.

Yesterday on Phoronix we mentioned the Linux 3.13-rc5 release just minutes after Linus Torvalds' Git tag. At the time there wasn't any official release announcement out, but we noted the committed activity in the past week was rather light. We now have the official release announcement from Torvalds and he commented the release will go on longer than anticipated.

Due to the Linux.Conf.Au conference happening in Australia from 6 to 10 January, an event attended regularly by Torvalds, the official release will not happen until after that time. Linus simply doesn't want the merge window for Linux 3.14 open while he is travelling so it's easier to control the flow of timely pulling new Git branches, etc.

So while activity is calming down on Linux 3.13, he expects to do at least a total of eight release candidates -- or three more past now, or roughly three weeks more of RCs with his weekly schedule, then the final release. Linux users that are committed to only using stable release versions will thus need to wait until mid-January to see the release -- and 3.14 development to officially commence -- rather than in early January.

More details can be found via Torvalds' mailing list message.