We were surprised that yesterday there was no new Release Candidate of the Linux kernel, but we already know why: Linus Torvalds simply could not access a computer on Sunday, so the launch de Linux 5.3-rc7 has been delayed about 24 hours. They are things that happen. But there is no harm that for good does not come and Torvalds has been able to put a couple more requests in this version.
That he couldn't access a keyboard prevented him from launching Linux 5.3-rc7 yesterday and allowed him to service more requests, and that is why this Release Candidate is bigger than expected. As always, Torvalds says that everything is within normalcy, but the extra day of work has made the size 25% larger than it would have been if the launch had occurred in the usual time frame.
Linux 5.3 will be released in two weeks
Linus Torvalds usually releases 7-8 Release Candidates before the stable version, but this time around, the rc8 is a must. So much so, that the father of Linux says he will do «an rc8 even if it turns out that this Labor Day week ends up being very quiet and there may be no technical reason to delay the release«. In any case, everything is fine if it ends well.
In this week's mail you already mentioned Linux 5.4, more specifically by inviting developers to start submitting their requests, because it is always better to have them ahead of time than later than it should be.
Linux 5.3 will come with many interesting news, such as support for newer MacBook keyboards and trackpads, initial support for Intel Speed Select technology on Cascadelake processors or that UBIFS now supports Zstd file system compression. If nothing else happens, it will be available from September 15.
