El Reg has noted:
Torvalds looses neatened number [release featuring] non-disruptive patches, Z13 support, and more.
[...] The new number isn't a sign of a major upgrade. As we've chronicled, Torvalds thinks that it looks a bit silly when version numbers go beyond x.19.
As the Benevolent Dictator for Life says in his post at the kernel mailing list:
since rc7 [...] It's mainly driver fixes (media, sound, pci, scsi target, drm, thermal..), misc arch updates (nios2 and x86), and scattered fixes elsewhere. Really not a lot during the last week.
After you folks hammered on the 7 release candidates and gave the kernel team bug reports, any drama seems to have been wrung out.
We previously discussed the never-need-to-reboot patching feature that has now been incorporated into the kernel.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 13 2015, @03:54PM
Ditto here. I was a KSplice fan, until they decided that private home users had to PAY for the privilege of using it. Corporations, I can understand, private users, not so much.
Yeah, you're right about recent patches. Rebooting every week sucks . . . and I don't even run a public server!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @06:47PM
What I find especially baffling is the not for private use one. Most of the new tech and what-not that has found its way into use here came by one of two routes: 1. a high-level executive forced it on the IT department, either because they already bought the contract or the tech wins buzzword bingo. 2. Someone used it at home and found it made their lives easier. Guess which source provides tech of any longevity.