Torvalds unveils first Linux 3.10 release candidate

Download, then be nice to your mother, Linux Lord advises

The first release candidate for version 3.10 of the Linux Kernel is upon us.

Linus Torvalds released RC1 of the new kernel on the eve of Mother's Day (in North America and Australia), together with some advice on how to treat Mum/Mom right on the occasion.

“So this is the biggest -rc1 in the last several years (perhaps ever) at least as far as counting commits go,” Torvalds wrote in the release announcement. “Which was unexpected, because while linux-next was fairly big, it wasn't exceptionally so.”

There is an awful lot of stuff in RC1, but the headliners include:

• More and better support for 64-bit ARM chips
• Improved virtualisation support for kernel-based virtual machines
• Improved solid state disk support
• New audio drivers
• Better support for AMD's power management features

Torvalds himself says there are so many new commits in this release that he can't list them all. He therefore recommends trawling through the GitHub repository for the kernel to look up all the changes, and get the best description of them from their maintainers' posts.

Version 3.10 is expected to arrive in its final form around late June or early July. ®