Linus Torvalds, the creator, as usual, has been in charge of announcing through an email on the kernel or LKML mailing lists that the new version of the Linux kernel is already on the street and ready to be downloaded and used by those users they want. Specifically, it is the Linux 4.18 that has been made to wait a bit as Linus himself has said due to the problems they have had and that have made the repairs in the code delay its launch by a week.
Now Linux 4.18 is ready and functional after a calmer week in terms of the work of Torvals himself and the rest of the kernel developers. The new version arrives with some minor updates, especially with regard to the network stack, which is the one that most of the work has been carried out, and especially after the problems of the vulnerability that has affected the TCP stack and that could make systems susceptible to DoS attacks as we have seen these days ...
But the network stack hasn't been the only part of the kernel that has gotten attention, too other controllers and subsystems They have received some bug fixes and enhancements, such as vfs, SCSI, network and i2c drivers, some other random enhancements here and there (ARM crypto, PARISC memory, etc.). Many of these patches or improvements will also be included in previous versions of the kernel to improve the previous versions that are still under maintenance. Now it's time to look at version 4.19 and from now on the development work for its preparation begins.
By the way, version 5.0 that would start the 5.x branch of the Linux kernel should have arrived already, this summer and when the millions of objects in git were reached as Torvalds himself said and as he also did with the 3.x. On the other hand, as you will see, it has not arrived and is not expected immediately. Torvalds has also explained that there is no reason for this, so we will continue with 4.x for a few more months.