Linux 2.6.37-rc8 Kernel Ends Out The Year

For those hoping Linux 2.6.37-rc7 was the last release candidate of the Linux 2.6.37 kernel before going gold, it's not. Linus this evening decided to go ahead and make a Linux 2.6.37-rc8 release.

Linux 2.6.37-rc8 was tagged in Git two hours ago and we've been waiting for an official announcement but so far nothing has come down. Though unless there ends up being some severe last minute issues, it would be quite surprising if a Linux 2.6.37-rc9 emerges in the coming days.

More than likely this will be the last release candidate (as 2.6.37-rc7 was already in fairly good shape and it's odd to see nine RCs before going gold) and that the official Linux 2.6.37 kernel will be released by early 2011. After that, the exciting Linux 2.6.38 kernel merge window should open.

The Linux 2.6.37 kernel will deliver Broadcom's new wireless driver, removal of the BKL (Big Kernel Lock) from the core code, DisplayLink driver updates, a stub Intel Poulsbo driver, many open-source graphics driver improvements, new Btrfs capabilities (namely the Btrfs space cache option), and much more. The Linux 2.6.37 kernel will be used by Ubuntu 11.04 among other upcoming Linux distributions.