Linux kernel 4.4 Release Candidate 8 is out for testing

Jan 4, 2016 02:00 GMT  ·  By

Just a few minutes ago, on January 3, 2015 (EST time), Linus Torvalds proudly announced the immediate availability for download and testing of the eighth and last RC (Release Candidate) version of the upcoming Linux 4.4 LTS kernel.

According to Mr. Torvalds, Linux kernel 4.4 LTS Release Candidate 8 is the last milestone before the final version, which should arrive next weekend, on January 10, 2016. It's an even smaller build when compared with the previous RC, bringing updates to several drivers, mostly network stuff, architecture improvements, especially for ARM and SPARC, general networking changes, as well as a few crypto fixes.

"Normally, me doing an eighth release candidate means that there is some unresolved issue that still needs more time to get fixed," said Linus Torvalds in today's announcement. "This time around, it just means that I want to make sure that everybody is back from the holidays and there isn't anything pending, and that people have time to get their merge window pull requests all lined up."

As usual, those of you who like testing Release Candidate versions of the Linux kernel on a Sunday evening can download Linux kernel 4.4 LTS RC8 right now either via Softpedia or from the kernel.org website. However, please try to keep in mind that these are development versions of the Linux kernel, so don't use them in production environments because they might break something. Happy testing!