It seems that the version of the kernel currently in development will not go down in history as it is one of the most problematic in history. Linus torvalds He launched yesterday afternoon Linux 5.11-rc5, and surprise! (no), it says that everything is quite normal and calm, like rc4 and rc3. There is only one thing that catches your eye, but, as always, you know why: this fifth RC is larger than usual in an rc5, but because the developers have spent a week's work on the Finnish developer.
Linux 5.11-rc5 is bigger than it should for that "download" of work, but there is no reason to worry. In fact, it mentions that Linux 5.10, the latest LTS version, and Linux 5.8, the one used by Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla and all its official flavors, were bigger, so of the last 4, the only smallest was v5.9. .XNUMX.
Linux 5.11 is coming February 14
Nothing stands out especially. We had a couple of splice () regressions that appeared during the previous version as part of the "get rid of set_fs () development", but they were for strange cases that most people would never realize. I think it's just that 5.10 is being implemented more widely now so people see the consequences of that pretty fundamental change in the latest version. And the only reason I even reacted to those is just because I ended up involved with some of the tty patches during the initial lull period last week. There are still some pending.
From what we have seen, it seems that this release will not be one of those that require an rc8, so Linux 5.11 should land on February 14. A little more than two months later, and except for surprise, it will be the version of the kernel that is included in Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo and all its official flavors.