The Linux Kernel Tea Leaves

Completely accurate and trustworthy predictions of the Linux kernel releases based on a single data point. Not.

Development cycles

Based on v6.16 having been tagged on 2025-07-27, the tea leaves say:

v6.16 2025-07-27

v6.17 development cycle

Merge window for features heading to v6.17

v6.17-rc1 predicted 2025-08-10

v6.17-rc2 predicted 2025-08-17

v6.17-rc3 predicted 2025-08-24

v6.17-rc4 predicted 2025-08-31

v6.17-rc5 predicted 2025-09-07

The drm subsystem deadline for features heading to v6.18 release.

v6.17-rc6 predicted 2025-09-14

v6.17-rc7 predicted 2025-09-21

v6.17 release predicted 2025-09-28/2025-10-05

v6.18 development cycle

Merge window for features heading to v6.18

v6.18-rc1 predicted 2025-10-12/2025-10-19

v6.18-rc2 predicted 2025-10-19/2025-10-26

v6.18-rc3 predicted 2025-10-26/2025-11-02

v6.18-rc4 predicted 2025-11-02/2025-11-09

v6.18-rc5 predicted 2025-11-09/2025-11-16

The drm subsystem deadline for features heading to v6.19 release.

v6.18-rc6 predicted 2025-11-16/2025-11-23

v6.18-rc7 predicted 2025-11-23/2025-11-30

v6.18 release predicted 2025-11-30/2025-12-14

v6.19 development cycle

Merge window for features heading to v6.19

v6.19-rc1 predicted 2025-12-14/2025-12-28

v6.19-rc2 predicted 2025-12-21/2026-01-04

v6.19-rc3 predicted 2025-12-28/2026-01-11

v6.19-rc4 predicted 2026-01-04/2026-01-18

v6.19-rc5 predicted 2026-01-11/2026-01-25

The drm subsystem deadline for features heading to v7.0 release.

v6.19-rc6 predicted 2026-01-18/2026-02-01

v6.19-rc7 predicted 2026-01-25/2026-02-08

v6.19 release predicted 2026-02-01/2026-02-22