One more step forward for the development of the new kernel Linux 5.1, and there is less to be able to have Linux 5.1 in its stable and final version. As usual, Linus Torvalds has been in charge of announcing the launch of the new final version candidate in the LKML. This new RC 2 or Release Candidate 2 brings some new features and corrections compared to the first rc1, and once it is released so that whoever wants to test it and report problems, the kernel developers will continue with the rc3 that we will see shortly.
As Linus has commented, it seems quite normal, there have been no major inconveniences nor has the volume or size of it increased. But he has also said that an rc2 is too early enough to say this, since there are still several RCs to launch until we reach the final version and there could still be some pitfalls along the way. In fact, he himself has commented that the people who are testing the 5.1 have not had too much time to notice or detect problems ...
Regarding the news, there are no great things to highlight, but yes some bugs have been fixed, among which is the new io_ring code, since some problems had been detected. Also some patches have been added for other parts and tools of the kernel, but not for the core itself. After these corrections it seems that too is OK now. But ignoring those little issues, the rest looks pretty good.
By the way, as usual, improvements or optimizations have been added for various subsystems or controllers as usual. One of them is the updates of the code regarding the CPU architectures supported by the kernel, and also for other device drivers, networks, and FS (Filesystem). It hasn't been a big, bloated kernel, but it looks pretty small or reduced as Linus likes it.