Linus Torvalds released the stable version of Linux 6.16, which adds more hardware compatibility, for Linux distributions to adopt and distribute to their users after releasing the seventh release candidate last week. We didn't need to see an eighth release candidate because Torvalds described the last week of the development cycle as "pleasant and tranquil."
Torvalds has cautioned of a "somewhat hectic" merge window for Linux 6.17 because of a large family trip in August for a wedding and a significant birthday. He will be abroad for roughly six weeks, split between Finland and the United States, according to his travel schedule. His capacity to handle pull requests effectively during the second week of the merging window, when major new features are being added, may be impacted by this.
The first of seven or eight release candidates follows the typically two-week merge window. During the release candidate stage, significant new features are added to the merge window prior to testing. Torvalds wants to do as much as possible in the first week despite everything else going on, so he alerted regular contributors and has so far gotten 50 pending pull requests as a result of his proactive actions.
Although Torvalds is taking every precaution to prevent problems, he acknowledged that he "may delay rc1 a bit just to catch up" if he is unable to handle all of the pull requests in the second week. He stated that anyone wishing to submit code should still be prompt or risk having to wait until Linux 6.18, as this extension does not imply leniency for late requests.
Torvalds said he might postpone the release for a few days if any pull requests weren't handled in the second week, but if the new features are provided on time, they should be included. However, the likelihood of seeing more release candidates increases with the level of chaos.
Despite everything, Torvalds is still of the opinion that we can still have a regular release window; he is only advising everyone that delays are possible and that they should be anticipated.
Because Linux 6.16 is low-level in the software stack, most users should refrain from attempting to install it manually on their Linux installations, as there is a significant likelihood that it will fail. If you're on a slower distribution, like Ubuntu, you may have to wait until the next major distro update, but if you're lucky, your distribution will push it as an update.