Linus Torvalds Kicks Off Linux 4.17 Development, Teases the Linux 5.0 Release

Two weeks after the launch of Linux kernel 4.16, Linus Torvalds kicked off the development cycle of the Linux 4.17 kernel series by releasing the first Release Candidate (RC) build.

At the end of every Linux kernel development cycle, the merge window opens for the next release, in this case, Linux 4.17. Now, two weeks later, the merge window is closed, and public testers can start downloading, compiling, and installing the upcoming Linux 4.17 kernel on their favorite GNU/Linux distributions.

As this is a development version, it's not recommended for deployment in production machines. Linux kernel 4.17 doesn't look to be a big release, and it won't include any major new features, according to Linus Torvalds, which teased the Linux community with the future release of the Linux 5.0 kernel series.

"The most special thing that happened is purely numerology: we've passed the six million git objects mark, and that is reason enough to call the next kernel 5.0. Except I p...