Linux kernel development further advances with the next big series, Linux 6.9. Today, Linus Torvalds declared the arrival of the initial Release Candidate (RC) milestone for public examination.
Yes, exactly two weeks have passed since Linux 6.8 came out, and the merge window for Linux kernel 6.9 is now shut. Hence, it’s time for the community to start testing the Release Candidate (RC) development variants. These are generally for early adopters, distro guardians, and those willing to use the bleeding-edge.
Per Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel 6.9 seems to be a rather “conventional” release. It pledges further improvements for the AMDGPU graphics driver, enhanced performance of timers, updates to the workqueue subsystem, architecture renovations, removal of the old NTFS code, important networking updates, VM and kernel enhancements, and also developments in tooling and documentation. Plus, many new drivers for better hardware assistance.
“The timer subsystem underwent a significant rewrite, introducing per-cpu timer wheels to bolster timer performance, which could be a significant point, especially for networking,” Linus Torvalds shared. “One other notable core update is to the workqueue subsystem, where one critical add-on is for BH workqueue support. That’s particularly significant as it implies we finally have an alternative to tasklets. The tasklet interface has effectively been phased out for a long while, but we’ve not had any good substitutes.
Linux kernel 6.9 also promises more improvements for the bcachefs file system introduced in Linux kernel 6.7, AMD P-State “preferred core” support, support for larger Linux console fonts for 4K displays, improvements to the new Intel Xe driver introduced in Linux kernel 6.8, passthrough mode for the FUSE file system, and much more.
The final release of Linux kernel 6.9 is expected to hit the streets in mid-May 2024, either on May 12th or May 19th, which depends on how many Release Candidate (RC) milestones Linus Torvalds will release until then.
If Linus Torvalds announces seven RC versions, we should expect Linux 6.9 to arrive on May 12th. But if he’ll announce eight Release Candidates, we’re looking at May 19th for the final release of Linux kernel 6.9.
However, just like Linux kernel 6.7 and Linux kernel 6.8, the Linux 6.9 kernel will be a short-lived series supported for only a few months with security and bugfix updates, so if you’re counting on long-term support, you should use one of the available LTS kernel branches available on kernel.org.
Until then, you can take the first Linux kernel 6.9 Release Candidate for a test drive on your GNU/Linux box by downloading the tarball from Linus Torvalds’ Git tree or the kernel.org website, but please keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, so don’t install or use it on a production machine!
Last updated 1 hour ago