There's a new Linux kernel, but you probably shouldn't use it right now

If you're feeling like having a slow week ahead of Christmas then you're not alone: Linux creator Linus Torvalds has used his weekly post to assure us that Linux 5.16 is coming, but probably after the festive season.

"Things are calming down, and rc6 is fairly small. That's normal for this time in the release schedule, but it's also normal for this time of year," Torvalds wrote.

"And I expect that the next two weeks will be very quiet, and smaller still. But maybe people are bored, maybe people are staying in due to covid picking up again, we'll just see."

Linux 5.16

The decision to wait and release 5.16 later means it should arrive around January 9, just ahead of the annual Linux.conf.au on January 14.

As a parting message, Linus jokes: "I know most of us are preparing for Christmas, but give it a whirl, ok? How important are those presents (and that family) anyway?"

Those who are brave enough to give it a go will find changes are mostly related to networking, USBs, and GPUs.

The news comes shortly afterAmazon Web Services (AWS) issued a preview of its custom Amazon Linux distro (AL2022) build, while committing to refreshing the distro every two years.

AWS noted that the two year major release cycle, with updates shipped quarterly via minor releases, will help keep the software current, while the five year support commitment for each major release will give customers the stability they need to manage long project lifecycles.