After eight release candidates, Linux 4.2 is now available, marking one of the longer development cycles in the last few years. The longer cycle was likely only the result of an abundance of caution on Linus Torvalds’ part and some travel (Linuxcon) too.
“So judging by how little happened this week, it wouldn’t have been a mistake to release 4.2 last week after all, but hey, there’s certainly a few fixes here, and it’s not like delaying 4.2 for a week should have caused any problems either,” Torvalds wrote in his Linux 4.2 release note.