Linux 6.8-rc7 Released With The Stable Kernel Potentially Coming Next Week

Linus Torvalds just issued Linux 6.8-rc7 as we close in on the Linux 6.8 stable release in the next week or two.

With prior weekly release candidates there were concerns raised by Torvalds that this might be a cycle needing to go with an extra "-rc8" candidate before declaring the stable kernel. But this week Linux 6.8-rc7 did tick on the smaller side and in turn Linus expressed the possibility of not needing 6.8-rc8, in which case the Linux 6.8 stable release would happen next Sunday on 10 March. But if things don't go smoothly, Linux 6.8-rc8 would come then and then v6.8 the following Sunday.

Linux commented in the 6.8-rc7 announcement:

"So we finally have a week where things have calmed down, and in fact 6.8-rc7 is smaller than usual at this point in time. So if that keeps up (but that's a fairly notable "if") I won't feel like I need to do an rc8 this release after all.

So no guarantees, but assuming no bad surprises, we'll have the final 6.8 next weekend.
...
It really is all pretty small. Let's hope it stays that way,"

See the Linux 6.8 feature overview to learn about all of the great changes and new hardware support to be introduced in Linux 6.8. The Linux 6.8 kernel is what should be used by the likes of Fedora 40 and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS this spring.