Linux 4.19 Released

Hi everyone!It's been a long strange journey for this kernel release...While it was not the largest kernel release every by number of commits,it was larger than the last 3 releases, which is a non-trivial thing todo.  After the original -rc1 bumps, things settled down on the code sideand it looks like stuff came nicely together to make a solid kernel foreveryone to use for a while.  And given that this is going to be one ofthe "Long Term" kernels I end up maintaining for a few years, that'sgood news for everyone.A small trickle of good bugfixes came in this week, showing that waitingan extra week was a wise choice.  However odds are that linux-next isjust bursting so the next -rc1 merge window is going to be bigger than"normal", if there is such a thing as "normal" for our rate ofdevelopment.And speaking of development, there's that other thing that happened thisrelease cycle, that ended up making it such that I'm the one writingthis instead of Linus.  Allow me the guilty pleasure of taking a fewminutes to talk about that....I've been giving my "How the kernel is developed" talk all around theworld for over a decade now.  After the first year or so, I was amazedthat it kept needing to be given as surely everyone knew how we did thistype of thing, right?  But my wife, someone much smarter than I, thentold me, "Every year there is a new kindergarten class."And we all need to remember that, every year new people enter ourcommunity with the goal, or requirement, to get stuff done for theirjob, their hobby, or just because they want to help contribute to thetool that has taken over the world and enabled everyone to have a solidoperating system base on which to build their dreams.And when they come into our community, they don't have the built-inknowledge of years of experience that thousands of us already do.Without that experience they make mistakes and fumble and have to learnhow this all works.  Part of learning how things work is dealing withthe interaction between people, and trying to understand the basicsocial norms and goals that we all share.  By providing a document inthe kernel source tree that shows that all people, developers andmaintainers alike, will be treated with respect and dignity whileworking together, we help to create a more welcome community to thosenewcomers, which our very future depends on if we all wish to see thisproject succeed at its goals.And that goal we all share is the key here.  We _ALL_ want to create thebest kernel that we possibly can.  We can disagree on lots of differentthings in other parts of our lives, but we do share this one thing.  Andwe should focus on that shared goal as it has pulled us all together ina way that has enabled us to create something that no other company orgroup of people has ever been able to accomplish.We used to joke that our goal was "Total World Domination", but itreally wasn't a joke.  We achieved that goal, Linux really does rule theworld.  All companies use it, contribute to it, and it has ended upmaking the world a much better place because of all of us working on it.In these talks I give, I also say that "the only thing that can stop usis ourselves, it is up to us to mess this up."  And that's truer nowthan when I first started saying that a decade ago.  There is no otheroperating system out there that competes against us at this time.  Itwould be nice to have something to compete against, as competition isgood, and that drives us to do better, but we can live with thissituation for the moment 🙂These past few months has been a tough one for our community, as it isour community that is fighting from within itself, with prodding fromothers outside of it.  Don't fall into the cycle of arguing about those"others" in the "Judean People's Front" when we are the "We're thePeople's Front of Judea!"  That is the trap that countless communitieshave fallen into over the centuries.  We all share the same goal, let usnever loose sight of that.So here is my plea to everyone out there.  Let's take a day or two off,rest, relax with friends by sharing a meal, recharge, and then get backto work, to help continue to create a system that the world has neverseen the likes of, together.Personally, I'm going to take my own advice.  I'll be enjoying this weekin Edinburgh with many other kernel developers, drinking some goodwhiskey, and taking some time off of reading email, by spending it withthe great friends I have made in this community.And with that, Linus, I'm handing the kernel tree back to you.  You canhave the joy of dealing with the merge window 🙂thanks,greg k-h