Linux 4.15 Goes Further Into Overtime: Linux 4.15-rc9

Linux 4.15 isn't happening today as planned: there's simply too much recent activity and some bugs known to be outstanding. As such, we're up to the ninth weekly release candidate.

Linus Torvalds noted this evening, "I really really wanted to just release 4.15 today, but things haven't calmed down enough for me to feel comfy about it, and Davem tells me he still has some networking fixes pending. Laura Abbott found and fixed a very subtle boot bug introduced this development cycle only yesterday, and it just didn't feel right to say that we're done. So I'm doing an rc9 instead. I don't particularly like to, but I like it even less releasing something that doesn't seem baked enough."

It's been seven years since a Linux kernel release has needed at least nine RCs before going gold. But as it stands now, you can expect to see Linux 4.15.0 debut next weekend followed by the Linux 4.16 merge window opening. Most Linux kernel cycles need just seven RCs until consider baked.

At least when Linux 4.15 does arrive, it will be better-baked and offer a lot of new features. More Linux 4.15 benchmarks forthcoming on Phoronix.