The merge window that opened with the launch of the Linux 5.11 kernel series two weeks ago is now closed.
Linus Torvalds published the first Release Candidate in the upcoming Linux kernel 5.12 series, giving us an early taste of the new features and improvements. The final release of Linux kernel 5.12 is expected to hit Linux distros sometime this Spring in late April 2021, either on the 18th or the 25th, depending on how many Release Candidate milestones will be published during the entire development cycle.