The development of the future Kernel 4.12 continues to develop normally. A couple of days ago, Linus Torvalds announced the immediate availability of the second RC (Release Candidate) version of Kernel 4.12.
This version has brought the usual news that updates of this type usually bring, such as updates to correct bugs detected in the previous versions or the update of the drivers of the most important components of the computer.
Among the most important changes, we have the update of the components of the architectures of most processors. For example, we have updated the x86 architecture, the PowerPC architecture, the ARM architecture and the ARM64 as the most popular. USB drivers, some graphics cards and internet drivers have also been updated.
Finally all bugs were fixed and errors detected in the previous version, something that is usually common in this type of updates. Without a doubt, the changes are not very big, although it is perfectly normal in the case of an RC. What's more, updates of this type are usually smaller.
The second RC marks the successful breakthrough of Kernel 4.12, which will be released approximately at the beginning of July, more or less on the 2nd of that month according to Torvalds. Every week a new RC version is scheduled to be released, so there will be a total of 7 or 8 RCs before the stable version comes out.
An RC or candidate version is a version that, as its name indicates, is a candidate to be a stable version. However, it is not yet stable because bugs have to be corrected and polished before launching, in order to guarantee its stability. In any case, an RC version belongs to the last stages of software development.
If you would like to download and try this version, you can do it as usual from the website of kernel.org. Of course, remember that it is not stable, so it could cause instability in work environments. You will also find other versions, such as the version 4.10.17 which also came out on Sunday.