A couple of weeks ago, Linus Torvalds, the main Linux kernel manager, said that the kernel version they were developing might be one of those that requires an rc8. The last week said it probably wouldn't be necessary and yesterday He launched the stable version of Linux 5.5. The last week has been pretty uneventful, so you didn't see it necessary to release another Release Candidate and delay the release.
It is a bit surprising that we already have a stable version, mainly because in the last 7 days many changes have been introduced in the form of patches, but Torvalds is the one who decides when one arrives. new kernel version and that day was yesterday. You probably made the decision when you saw that the kernel size had been greatly reduced.
Linux 5.5 includes support for the Raspberry Pi 4
So last week was pretty uneventful, and although we had a late network update with some network drivers (mainly iwl wireless) and network filter module loading fixes, David didn't think that would justify another -rc. And outside of that it really was very quiet in fact, there is also a driver update for apanfrost, but once again, it doesn't seem like it makes sense to delay the final release for another week.
That there is a new stable version also means that the merge window opens (merge window) so that the news that will be introduced in Linux 5.6 can begin to be delivered and officially discussed. As we will publish in another article, the next version of the Linux kernel will come with many changes, but it is unlikely that it will be included in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa because the deadlines will be very tight.
Torvalds ends this week's email asking us to start testing Linux 5.5, something we can do by downloading it from this link or using tools like Ukuu. You have a list of the most outstanding news in this link.