Linux kernel maintainer Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate of Linux 7.2 (Linux 7.2-rc1), marking the scheduled closure of the merge window for the 7.2 version and the formal entry of kernel development into a testing and stabilization phase lasting approximately eight weeks. It is expected that after completing the subsequent release candidate and stable release processes, Linux 7.2 will serve as the kernel foundation for mainstream Linux distributions such as Fedora 45 and Ubuntu 26.10.
