A week ago, Linus Torvalds threw a second Linux RC that was bigger than normal, but knew exactly what was going on. A few hours ago has given us Linux 6.1-rc3, and is still larger than normal. Even so, as he explains, that the size grows this week is the most common, so he does not seem worried. The opposite would be news.
Linux 6.1-rc3 it's just a little bigger than average, and for it to have this size, the problems of last week have had to be combined with the fact that people have begun to find what needs to be repaired. This time, the size has to do with several fronts, and not just one as in RC 2.
Linux 6.1 will arrive in early December
I know I said last week that the rc2 was unusually large. It turns out that rc3 is almost exactly the same size. But at least for a version of rc3, that larger size is a bit more normal: that's when people start finding problems and submitting fixes for them.
So, while rc2 was _much_ larger than usual, rc3 is only slightly larger than an average version of rc3. But it's still a bit bigger. I'm hoping things start to settle down and we start to see these rc's shrink down in size. Please?
Unlike rc2, there is no single reason for the bulk of rc3's changes. They are rather of all kinds, with the usual distribution: drivers dominate (network, gpu and sound are the most notable, but there is a bit of everything).
If all goes well, Linux 6.1 should arrive on December 4. Otherwise, his arrival would be delayed a week, and he would be available on the 11th of the same month. When the time comes, and as always, Ubuntu users who want to install it will have to install it on their own, either manually or using tools like Mainline. Ubuntu 23.04, which will arrive in April 2023, should use the 6.2 kernel.