And it was all laughter, until the fifth RC arrived. That’s what it looks like with the kernel version currently in development, because after a fourth RC in which everything went back to normal and looked good, Linus Torvalds He launched last night Linux 5.12-rc5 and the tortilla has been turned around. It’s only been a week, but seven days seems like more than enough to bring up something to worry about.
Although good, Torvalds is not a person who gets nervous easily. We mentioned that there may be something to worry about because the Finnish developer he has already considered launching an rc8, which is the wildcard that is reserved for kernels that need a bit more work. The problem is that Linux 5.12-rc5 is larger than average and, although no records have been broken, it is not the best time for this to happen when we are two weeks before the release of the stable version.
Linux 5.12 might require an eighth RC
So if rc4 was perhaps a bit smaller than average, it seems that rc5 is larger than average. We’re not breaking any records, but it’s certainly not small, and rcs aren’t shrinking. I’m not too worried just yet, but let’s just say the trend better not continue, or I’ll start to feel like we’ll have to make this one of those releases that need a rc8.
If everything goes back to normal, Linux 5.12 will arrive in the form of a stable version on next April 21. If not, that day we will have an eighth CR, and the stable version will move its landing to the 28th of the same month. At the time, if Ubuntu users want to use it, we will have to install it on our own, since Ubuntu 20.10 uses Linux 5.8 and Hirsute Hippo will arrive with Linux 5.11.
