The Linux 7.4 Merge Window Is Easily The Largest In Kernel History
After writing this morning with some stats about the size of the Linux 7.4 merge window and the kernel’s source tree approaching 42 million lines, I was curious to run some numbers for putting the size of the merge window into perspective against the major kernel releases of the past 15 years. This shows the definite recent uptick due to AI/LLM activity… ⌘ Read more
OverlayFS Sees Many Fixes Thanks To AI Code Review
Merged this weekend for Linux 7.4 and also marked for back-porting to current stable kernel versions are a number of fixes to the OverlayFS union mount file-system… ⌘ Read more
AI Use In The Linux Kernel, Microsoft Defender On Linux & Other October Highlights
October brought the releases of Linux 7.3, Ubuntu 26.10, the KDE Plasma 6.8 desktop, and a wealth of other open-source software releases. The expanding use of AI/LLMs within Linux kernel development also made for interesting discussions in October. Microsoft bringing their Defender software to the Linux desktop was perhaps the biggest surprise out of October. Here is a look back at the past month… ⌘ Read more
Linux’s Perf Python Scripts More Robust & Faster With Linux 7.4
Merged this weekend to Linux 7.4 Git were all of the perf subsystem tooling updates. Most notable to these tooling updates for dealing with performance counters and more on Linux is an overhaul to the Python code… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Merge Window Saw Nearly 20k Commits, Source Tree Approaching 42 Million Lines
Linux 7.3 started out just under 41 million lines in total in the kernel source tree. In the end the Linux v7.3 tag came in at 41,019,555 lines as measured by cloc while now with Linux 7.4 we are inching ever closer to 42 million lines. On a Git commit basis, the Linux 7.4 merge window has been the busiest on record… ⌘ Read more
OpenShot 4.1 Released With Auto-Optimize, CLI Automation & ARM64 Linux Builds
OpenShot is closing out the month of October by releasing OpenShot 4.1 as the latest major feature release for this useful open-source video editing solution… ⌘ Read more
Linux Mint Developing New Apps For Terminal & System Monitoring
Linux Mint is out with their October 2026 status report to outline various initiatives they have underway in their lead-up to the Linux Mint 27 stable release happening on/around Christmas… ⌘ Read more
New Linux 7.4 Feature For Reducing AI Noise Already Reverted Due To A “Crazy Beast”
A new feature merged last week for Linux 7.4 to help reduce AI/LLM generated noise from invalid/irrelevant testing configurations is now reverted due to a “crazy beast” in the VFIO subsystem… ⌘ Read more
Ceph In Linux 7.4 Adds Global Mount Option For Lazy I/O
The Ceph kernel client changes have been submitted for Linux 7.4 ahead of its merge window expected to wrap up on Sunday… ⌘ Read more
DXVK-NVAPI 0.9.3 Brings Nice Improvements For Linux Gamers On Latest NVIDIA Drivers
DXVK-NVAPI 0.9.3 is out this weekend as a new feature update to this NVIDIA NVAPI implementation used by Valve as part of Steam Play with Proton for nicely integrating NVIDIA technologies into various Windows games running on Linux… ⌘ Read more
Wine 11.21 released with improved WoW64 OpenGL performance
Another biweekly development release is here with Wine 11.21 out now bringing various improvements for running Windows apps and games on Linux.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Proton Experimental brings new fixes for Helldivers 2, BeamNG.drive and more
Valve released the latest upgrade for Proton Experimental bringing a fresh set of fixes for Windows games on SteamOS / Linux for October 30th.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/10/proton-experimental-brings-new-fixes-for-helldivers-2-beamng-dri … ⌘ Read more
AMD Ryzen Zen 6 Looks Like It Will Be In Good Shape With Linux 7.4, Laptop Improvements
The x86 platform driver changes were merged this week to the Linux 7.4 kernel ahead of the merge window closing this weekend… ⌘ Read more
The popular idle clicker game Idle Slayer added Linux and macOS support
With a mixture of idle and clicker mechanics, the popular and well-reviewed Idle Slayer is now support on both Linux and macOS.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
AMD PerfOpt Makes it Into Linux 7.4 As A Nice Performance Boost For AMD iGPUs
As anticipated, the AMD PerfOpt feature was picked up for the Linux 7.4 kernel. As shown already in multiple Phoronix benchmarks, AMD PerfOpt makes for a nice performance boost for AMD integrated graphics, especially for AI workloads… ⌘ Read more
I3C Hub & HDR-DDR Support Merged For Linux 7.4
The I3C changes for Linux 7.4 were submitted this week by Bootlin’s Alexandre Belloni and subsequently merged… ⌘ Read more
Epic Games Launcher Preview updated to fix logins on some Linux systems
The in-development Epic Games Launcher Preview that has Linux support has seen another few updates, and now more Linux users should be able to actually login.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
RISC-V Has A Nice Portable Performance Optimization With Linux 7.4
The RISC-V architecture changes were merged today for the Linux 7.4 kernel with one nice optimization standing out… ⌘ Read more
Fedora Linux 45 Shipping Next Week On 3 November
Fedora 45 is ready to ship! It will be formally released on Tuesday, 3 November… ⌘ Read more
F2FS Adds Opt-In Multi-Grain Timestamps With Linux 7.4, Other Improvements
The F2FS (Flash Friendly File-System) improvements have been merged for Linux 7.4 to further enhance this flash-optimized solution… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Networking Brings Hardware Pacing Offload, New Drivers & More Performance
The many Linux wired and wireless networking driver improvements were merged this week for the ongoing Linux 7.4 merge window…. ⌘ Read more
CachyOS Linux working on a dedicated kernel for supporting Easy Anti-Cheat v2
With the new Epic Games Launcher supported on Linux, along with a remade Easy Anti-Cheat coming, the CachyOS team are working on kernel support for EAC v2.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/10/cachyos-linux-working-on-a-dedicated-kernel-for-su … ⌘ Read more
Ubuntu Core Desktop has been restarted with a dedicated team with plans to improve Linux gaming
Ubuntu Core Desktop is Canonical’s immutable version of Ubuntu Linux, and they’re back to working on it for desktop users.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/10/ubuntu-core-desktop-has-been-restarted-with-a- … ⌘ Read more
Mesa 26.2.6 brings fixes for The Witcher 3 Remastered and various other Linux driver issues
Mesa 26.2.6 is out now as the latest upgrade for Linux open source graphics drivers, focused on fixing up some bugs reported.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/10/mesa-26-2-6-brings-fixes-for-the-witcher-3-remaster … ⌘ Read more
FAT32 File-System Seeing As Much As 265x Improvement With Linux 7.4
A change merged for Linux 7.4 is showing some mighty big speed-ups for the FAT32 file-system… ⌘ Read more
Graphics/NPU Driver Changes Already Begin Queuing Up For What Will Be Linux 7.5
Since last week drm-misc-next pull requests have already been sent out to DRM-Next to begin staging new feature code for what’s intended for the Linux 7.5 kernel cycle kicking off at the end of the year… ⌘ Read more
KSMBD Adds New Options With Linux 7.4
A number of improvements to KSMBD, the in-kernel SMB3 file server, were merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel… ⌘ Read more
Linux Kernel Developers Considering Removal Of KGDB Debugging Functionality
Merged to the kernel all the way back in Linux 2.6.26 in 2008 was KGDB for improving the kernel debugging experience. KGDB works in conjunction with the GNU Debugger (GDB) to debug the kernel in a similar fashion to user-space debugging. KGDB requires the use of a second computer connected via serial or network cable. KGDB isn’t widely used in recent years and a patch was floated today to remove it from the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more
System76 Introducing AMD-Powered Linux Small PC
System76 began teasing today the new Thelio Prime Desktop as an AMD-powered Linux mini PC that will begin shipping in November… ⌘ Read more
Canonical Reviving Their Immutable Ubuntu Core Desktop
Canonical engineers back in 2023 outlined plans for Ubuntu Core Desktop as their immutable Linux desktop. They made some good initial progress but since 2024 it went rather silent. Now they are reviving Ubuntu Core Desktop as their immutable desktop OS offering and with grand plans for the future… ⌘ Read more
CachyOS vs. Fedora 45 vs. Ubuntu 26.10 Performance On AMD Ryzen 9
With the recently released Ubuntu 26.10 and the nearly-released Fedora Workstation 45, Phoronix readers have begun inquiring about fresh benchmarks looking at how they stack up against the performance-optimized, Arch Linux based CachyOS. Up today are our first CachyOS vs. Fedora 45 vs. Ubuntu 26.10 benchmarks on an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D2 desktop system. ⌘ Read more
Provenance Time Proposed As A New Timestamp For Linux
While the Linux kernel and various file-system drivers already support the notion of the birth time for tracking a file/directory’s birth/creation time, a slightly different provenance time “ptime” is now being proposed for the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more
Hyprland 0.57 Released With Compiz Inspired Wobbly Windows
For those that want to reminisce over the days long ago of Compiz and Beryl on the Linux desktop, the Hyprland 0.57 Wayland compositor released today and has added Compiz-inspired wobbly windows support… ⌘ Read more
VKD3D-Proton 3.1 brings a new stable release, ahead of more important changes to come
VKD3D-Proton is one of the major parts of Valve’s Proton, that enables tons of Direct3D 12 games to run well on SteamOS / Linux. Version 3.1 is out now!
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/10/vkd3d-proton-3-1-brings-a-new-stable-rele … ⌘ Read more
VKD3D-Proton 3.1 Released With New Features Ahead Of Big v3.2 Release
Hans-Kristian Arntzen of Valve’s Linux team just tagged the VKD3D-Proton 3.1 release. This version comes with a number of new features and performance optimizations while being the stable point ahead of VKD3D-Proton beginning to see a lot of new feature code for what will then become VKD3D-Proton 3.2… ⌘ Read more
Retiring BSD-Compress Proposed For Linux PPP Network Code
A patch has been proposed to remove the BSD-Compress support from the Linux kernel for the Linux networking point-to-point protocol (PPP) due to being unmaintained and having fundamental issues with the code that can lead to a fatal error… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Introduces DMA-BUF Support To I/O Path With IO_uring
Merged today for the ongoing Linux 7.4 merge window is the infrastructure for enabling DMA-BUF support in the kernel’s I/O path with the wonderful IO_uring framework… ⌘ Read more
Raspberry Pi Zero 3 W & Raspberry Pi 4 Model A Surface In Linux Kernel Patches
It looks like a next-generation Raspberry Pi Zero is about to surface, the long-awaited Raspberry Pi Zero 3 W. And in an interesting twist in these times amid high PC component costs and supply chain constraints, a Raspberry Pi 4 Model A… ⌘ Read more
Pavee OS: Ikey Doherty’s New Daily-Driver Desktop Distro Being Built Atop Barney
Back in September Ikey Doherty of Solus Linux and Serpent OS notoriety as well as being a former Intel Clear Linux developer announced Barney as his planned showcase for how to “properly” build a modern Linux distribution in 2026+. Today he’s provided an update on this Barney distro tooling effort as well as announcing Pavee OS as his planned daily-driver desktop distribution built atop it… ⌘ Read more
AMD EPYC Zen 6 PML Support, ARM64 On s390 Merged For Linux 7.4 KVM
The many Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) improvements have been merged for Linux 7.4 to deliver a number of new features for different server processors… ⌘ Read more
Linux’s Modern NTFS Driver Now Supports Alternate Data Streams (ADS)
Merged back in Linux 7.1 was the new NTFS kernel driver implementation for better supporting Microsoft’s NTFS file-system on Linux. Since then new features and improvements have continued to land for this NTFS driver with some more notable additions also coming in Linux 7.4… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Expands Sensor Monitoring For More ASUS & MSI Motherboards, New Minisforum Driver
With the Linux 7.4 kernel there are more MSI and ASUS motherboards with sensor monitoring support along with a variety of other additions to help broaden the selection of supported systems for hardware sensor monitoring under Linux. It’s another busy cycle for the HWMON subsystem… ⌘ Read more
Firefox 159 Released With AMD Linux Graphics Fix For Excessive Memory Use
Firefox 159 is out today as the latest bi-weekly feature release for Mozilla’s web browser… ⌘ Read more
Initial Support For The Apple M4 & Apple A18 Pro Make It Into Linux 7.4
The many SoC patches have landed within the Linux 7.4 kernel providing support for dozens of new boards as well as a number of new SoCs like the Apple M4 and the A18 Pro as found in the MacBook Neo. The Google Tensor 5 was also finally mainlined along with Pixel 10 devices. Plus some unreleased Qualcomm SoC support rounds out the bunch… ⌘ Read more
Steam Frame VR Headset Sees Mainline Support With Linux 7.4
The mainline Linux 7.4 kernel will be capable of running on the Steam Frame VR headset… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Preps CXL For Very Neat Dynamic Capacity Devices “DCD”
The Compute Express Link (CXL) subsystem changes were merged today for the Linux 7.4 kernel. The fun work this cycle is preparing to support Dynamic Capacity Devices… ⌘ Read more
KMSCON 10.1 Released With Support For Per-Monitor Configurations
KMSCON as the user-space terminal emulator targeting Linux DRM/KMS interfaces as an alternative to the in-kernel VT now is able to individually configure monitors in multi-monitor setups. Plus a variety of other improvements with today’s KMSCON 10.1 release… ⌘ Read more
Intel IPU8 Support Upstreamed In Linux 7.4 For Nova Lake Laptops
The media subsystem changes have been merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel. Most notable is Intel IPU8 support being introduced for the next-gen image processing unit in high-end Nova Lake laptops.. ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 EFI Brings Improvement For Helping Systemd When Kernel Booted Directly
The EFI updates have been merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel and include an improvement for when the system was booted directly into the kernel on EFI-based systems without using a bootloader like GRUB or systemd-boot… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Begins Employing New “Core MM” Tree
Core memory management patches to the Linux kernel have typically been routed to mainline via Andrew Morton’s “MM” branch, which is where also a variety of broader memory management related patches are also queued like all the ongoing work to DAMON/DAMOS. Kernel maintainers have now agreed to a new “Core MM” tree as the home for all of the core memory management changes moving forward… ⌘ Read more