“With the official release of the 2.6.23 kernel expected any day
now, Andrew Morton posted his -mm merge plans for the 2.6.24
kernel. The current Linux kernel development model is to open up
the mainline kernel for significant merges during the two weeks
following a major kernel release. Thus, during the two weeks
following the imminent release of the 2.6.23 kernel, subsystem
maintainers will push their latest trees to Linus’ mainline tree.
Andrew Morton will also push many of the patches he collects in his
-mm tree to Linus’ mainline tree during these two weeks, as
detailed in his email. At the end of the merge window, 2.6.24-rc1
will be released and the stabilization process begins, though in
reality significant merges also often slip in between -rc1 and
-rc2. A series of -rc kernels will be released, eventually leading
to a stable 2.6.24 kernel two or three months after the process
started, and it all starts again…”