Linus Torvalds Kicks Off Linux 4.16 Development with More Spectre/Meltdown Fixes

It’s been two weeks since the release of the Linux 4.15 kernel series, the first to come with the complete set of patches against the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities that affect billions of devices, but only for x86 and PowerPC (PPC) architectures, which means that the merge window for Linux kernel 4.16 is now closed. Therefore, the development cycle of the Linux 4.16 kernel kicks off with the first release candidate, which is now available for public testing, and it looks like it will be a quiet one as there aren’t any major patches pending or anything out of the ordinary, but not a major release either, according to Linus Torvalds.