Linus在邮件列表中说：“我本来在犹豫要不要来个RC8，不过下周要出去旅游，网络不好，还是不延迟了”。并表示3.19后就会进入4.0时代，不过那是一年后的事情了。
该版新特性：
The Radeon open-source kernel graphics driver has improved Dynamic Power Management, but it won’t be until Linux 3.13 where Radeon DPM is enabled by default along with HDMI audio.
A brand new DRM/KMS driver in the form of the Snapdragon MSM driver written by Rob Clark to go along with his reverse-engineered Freedreno driver for Qualcomm Snapdragon/Adreno graphics.
Run-time GPU power management so NVIDIA Optimus systems can dynamically power on/off the secondary GPU.
Experimental DRM render nodes support done by David Herrmann over the summer.
AMD Berlin APU support as the first APU built upon AMD’s Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA).
The EXT4 file-system now supports aggressive extent caching and better recovery capabilities.
Random F2FS, XFS, and Btrfs file-system improvements. This kernel does deliver on disk improvements.
zRAM has been promoted out of the staging area of the kernel. ZRAM supports a compressed block device in RAM to avoid paging to disk and is mostly of benefit for systems with limited amounts of system memory.
Various staging driver updates and sound driver work and other glorious work.
翻译如下：
开放源代码的内核的Radeon显卡驱动程序提高了动态电源管理，但它不会是，一直到Linux 3.13的Radeon DPM是默认启用的，随着HDMI音频。
全新的DRM / KMS驱动的形式的Snapdragon MSM罗布·克拉克一起去他反向工程Freedreno的驱动，高通Snapdragon /的Adreno图形驱动程序。
运行时GPU的电源管理，使NVIDIA®(英伟达™)Optimus系统可以动态二级GPU电源开/关。
实验性DRM渲染节点支持由大卫·赫尔曼在夏季。
柏林AMD APU支持作为第一个建立在AMD的异构系统架构( HSA )的APU 。
EXT4文件系统现在支持激进的程度缓存和更好的恢复能力。
随机F2FS ，XFS和Btrfs文件系统的改进。这个内核不提供磁盘上进行了改进。
ZRAM已提拔出来的临时区域的内核。 ZRAM支持压缩的RAM块设备，以避免分页到磁盘，主要是系统与系统内存的数量有限的利益。
各种分期驱动程序更新和声卡驱动程序的工作和其他劳动光荣。
Linux3.12内核下载地址(Ubuntu系可以这里下载安装升级)：(点击进入)
官方源码下载
……