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Linux 7.2-rc6
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Linux 7.2-rc6
Hmm. This rc is huge. Even by the "new normal" standards this is a big rc, and I think it's the biggest rc6 we've had in years at least by commit count.
The stats don't look particularly strange: it's just under 60% drivers, 20% networking, and 20% "rest" (arch, tooling, filesystems - nothing particularly odd). And that driver side is the usual gpu and networking drivers, but not exclusively so - we have sound, spi, ata etc in there too.
So a lot of networking stuff, which is at least partly the whole continued backlog from conference timing. I hope that's all there is to this, but it is a bit unnerving how bit the changes are at this point, even if nothing in here actually looks all that strange.
There's nothing in here that screams "bad" or implies that the release needs delaying, but I sure hope we calm down for the remaining two weeks.
Linus
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Kernel prepatch 7.2-rc6
The 7.2-rc6 kernel prepatch is out for testing. Quoth Linus: "
Hmm. This rc is huge. Even by the "new normal" standards this is a big rc, and I think it's the biggest rc6 we've had in years at least by commit count.
" There were 537 non-merge commits applied between 7.2-rc5 and 7.2-rc6.
Neowin:
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Linux 7.2-rc6 was a massive release, but it's not going to delay the final release
Linus Torvalds actually says this was the largest sixth release candidate he has seen in recent years. That's likely due to AI.
Later coverage:
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Linux Kernel 7.2 RC6 Released: The Largest RC6 in Recent Years
Linus Torvalds released the sixth release candidate (RC6) for Linux Kernel 7.2 on Sunday, August 2, 2026. Here's what's new in Linux 7.2-rc6.