As expected the stable Linux 7.0 kernel was just released today in marking this next kernel release. The Linux 7.0 milestone comes due to Linus Torvalds’ preference of bumping the major version number after hitting X.19 as opposed to any single major change, but in any event there are a lot of great improvements and changes to find with this new kernel version. Linux 7.0 is also what’s powering the upcoming Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release.
There are many Linux 7.0 features and changes including more Intel Nova Lake enablement, more Intel Crescent Island accelerator bring-up, new AMD graphics IP blocks being enabled, self-healing capabilities for the XFS file-system, various performance optimizations, Intel TSX now defaults to auto mode, standardized generic I/O error reporting for the Linux kernel at long last, and much more as we have covered in dozens of Phoronix articles in recent weeks.
In the lead up to the Linux 7.0 release today were a number of last minute patches that did make me wonder if v7.0 stable would still happen today. Last minute changes included fixing some bogus hardware errors on AMD Zen 3 processors and an out-of-bounds access in the X.509 certificate code that could be triggered from unprivileged users and has existed in the mainline kernel the past three years. This week there were also more ASUS device ID additions to the Armoury driver and adding some new HID codes for new AI agent interaction keys expected with upcoming laptops.
Linux 7.0 is now available.
Now it’s on to the Linux 7.1 merge window that is sure to be exciting with many more features expected as a beautiful, never-ending cycle of open-source development.
