After the release of a new stable version, Linus Torvalds leaves a blank week for all requests to be collected and work begins on the next version. But this time the blank could have been two weeks, due to an electrical problem stemming from an ice storm that affected the Portland area. Still, the Finnish developer He launched yesterday Linux 5.12-rc1.
Yes Torvalds considered lengthening the fusion window One more week it was because he himself was without electricity for six days, so he could not see what was happening or check anything. What happened is that the community was able to work normally, and once it was verified, they decided to release Linux 5.12-rc1 when it was scheduled because everything aligned perfectly and there was no reason not to.
Linux 5.12-rc1 could lag
With that said, we now have two unusual combination windows in a row - first we had the holiday season, and this time in the Portland area we had over a quarter of a million people without power because we had a winter ice storm that brought down thousands of trees and many power lines. So I was actually without power for the six days of the merge window, and I was seriously considering expanding the merge window to do everything.
Linux 5.12-rc1 has a smaller size than usual in a first RC, but Torvalds assures that it has not had to do with the lack of electricity. Even so, the developer asks the community that, if they find a problem, report it to them during the week and they will try to repair it for RC2.
Linux 5.12 will be officially released on April 18, or a week later if an octave CR is required. In any case, Ubuntu users will stay in 5.11 until the Ubuntu 21.10 release.