Linux Kernel 5.9 releases
2 min readThe 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 5.9 released.
Ok, so I'll be honest - I had hoped for quite a bit fewer changes this
last week, but at the same time there doesn't really seem to be
anything particularly scary in here. It's just more commits and more
lines changed than I would have wished for.
The bulk of this is the networking fixes that I already mentioned as
being pending in the rc8 release notes last weekend. In fact, about
half the patch (and probably more of the number of commits) is from
the networking stuff (both drivers and elsewhere).
Outside of that, the most visible thing is a reinstatement of the
fbdev amba-clcd driver - that's a noticeable patch, but it's basically
just mainly a revert.
The rest is really really tiny (mostly some other minor driver
updates, but some filesystem and architecture fixes too). There's just
a bit more of those kinds of tiny details than there should be fo this
kind of last delayed week. But since nothing in there gives me any
particular reason to delay another week, here we are.
That obviously means that the merge window for 5.10 is open, and I'll
start doing those pulls tomorrow. I already have a couple of pulls
pending, but I hope people take the time to just do one last test of
the final 5.9 release.
So go get it.
Linus
