Linux Kernel 5.3 RC8 releases
The Linux kernel is an open source monolithic Unix-like computer operating system kernel. The Linux family of operating systems is based on this kernel and deployed on both traditional computer systems such as personal computers and servers, usually in the form of Linux distributions, and on various embedded devices such as routers, wireless access points, PBXes, set-top boxes, FTA receivers, smart TVs, PVRs, and NAS appliances. The Android operating system for tablet computers, smartphones, and smartwatches uses services provided by the Linux kernel to implement its functionality. While the adoption on desktop computers is low, Linux-based operating systems dominate nearly every other segment of computing, from mobile devices to mainframes. As of November 2017, all of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers run Linux.
The Linux kernel was conceived and created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his personal computer and with no cross-platform intentions, but has since expanded to support a huge array of computer architectures, many more than other operating systems or kernels. Linux rapidly attracted developers and users who adopted it as the kernel for other free software projects, notably the GNU Operating System. The Linux kernel has received contributions from nearly 12,000 programmers from more than 1,200 companies, including some of the largest software and hardware vendors.
Larry Ewing, Simon Budig and Anja Gerwinski [Public domain or Attribution], via Wikimedia Commons
Linux Kernel 5.3 RC8 released. This version only modifies some minor issues, mainly in the following areas:
So we probably didn't strictly need an rc8 this release, but with LPC
and the KS conference travel this upcoming week it just makes
everything easier.
And partly because of the extra week, we then had a few fixes that
maybe otherwise would have been delayed and marked for stable. The
most notable one (but hopefully not very noticeable) is fixing race
conditions in configfs. That won't affect very many people, with
configfs not all that widely used, but Christoph and Al both felt it
needed to be fixed.
Other than that, it really is a very small rc (and hopefully the final
week will be smaller still). In fact, the configfs fix along with a
vhost revert is about half of the patch. The rest is various small
things: a few sound fixes, some drm fixes, and a few other random
fixes. Even in the drm case, the selftest addition is bigger than the
core code patches.
The appended shortlog is short enough that it's easy enough to scroll
through if you are interested in the details.
Linus