KDE Plasma 6.7 Preps More Improvements While Plasma 6.6.1 Fixes Begin Accumulating
This week marked the release of KDE’s Plasma 6.6 desktop as a very successful release that overall is in very robust shape and performing well. While Plasma 6.6 overall is in great shape, there are various bugs - including crash fixes - that have already been queued for the upcoming Plasma 6.6.1. KDE developers are also quite busy on the trek toward Plasma 6.7… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Shows Significant PostgreSQL Performance Gains On AMD EPYC
When beginning some early Linux 7.0 kernel benchmarking this week for looking at its performance in its early development state, I started off testing on Core Ultra X7 “Panther Lake” in being hopeful for better performance with the maturing Arc B390 Xe3 graphics and the like. But I ended up finding Intel Panther Lake seeing some performance regressions on Linux 7.0. So next up I turned to an AMD EPYC Turin server since if regressions existed th … ⌘ Read more

Linux Begins Seeing Early Preparations For PCIe 7.0
While we are on the horizon of seeing PCI Express 6.0 devices, there are already early Linux kernel patches beginning to surface for PCI Express 7.0… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Brings Apple Type-C PHY, Snapdragon X2 & Rockchip HDMI 2.1 FRL Additions
Ahead of the Linux 7.0 merge window ending this weekend, the PHY updates were merged this week for this next major kernel release. There are some notable PHY additions particularly for Apple Silicon USB Type-C support as well as additions for Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X2 laptop SoCs… ⌘ Read more

USB Driver For Google Tensor SoCs, UCSI Thunderbolt Alt Mode In Linux 7.0
All of the Thunderbolt/USB driver changes were merged this week for the nearly-over Linux 7.0 merge window… ⌘ Read more

Turbostat With Linux 7.0 Can Report New L2 Cache Statistics
The Turbostat command-line utility for reporting processor frequency and idle statistics along with other useful information for AMD and Intel CPUs can now report some L2 cache stats for recent Intel CPUs beginning with Linux 7.0… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Speeds Up Reclaiming File-Backed Large Folios By 50~75%
Merged on Wednesday were some additional memory management “MM” updates for the Linux 7.0 merge window. Most interesting out of these latest three dozen patches is support for batched unmapping of file-backed large folios… ⌘ Read more

Linux Still Working To Clean Up The Realtek RTL8723BS 802.11b/g/n WiFi Driver In 2026
Introduced to the Linux 4.12 kernel’s staging area back in 2017 was the Realtek RTL8723BS WiFi driver. The Realtek RTL8723BS is an 802.11 b/g/ SDIO WLAN adapter with Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity too. In the nearly decade since this driver was added to the staging area, it’s continued to be cleaned up and with the Linux 7.0 merge window there is yet again a lot of work on cleaning up this WiFi driver for the old Realtek hardware… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Showing Some Early Performance Regressions On Intel Panther Lake
With the Linux 7.0 merge window beginning to calm down ahead of the 7.0-rc1 release due out on Sunday, one of the areas I was most excited about benchmarking on Linux 7.0 was looking for any performance gains with the new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” given ongoing Intel Xe graphics driver improvements and other general kernel optimizations. Unfortunately, at large the Intel Panther Lake performance is moving in the wrong directio … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Retires The IBM Mwave ACP Modem Driver Used By Some 1990s ThinkPads
Long past due for retirement, the Linux 7.0 kernel has removed the obsolete Mwave driver for the 3780i ACP Modem found in some Pentium II era IBM ThinkPads from the 1990s… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Brings Several Enhancements For Modern Laptops
The x86 platform driver updates were merged recently for the ongoing Linux 7.0 merge window. As is a common theme for platform-drivers-x86, a lot of the feature work is around Linux laptop drivers for enhancing the support on modern hardware… ⌘ Read more

LoongArch Ready With New Features In Linux 7.0
The Linux 7.0 kernel is shipping improvements for LoongArch, the Chinese CPU architecture inspired by MIPS64 and RISC-V and has been showing much potential for their domestic PC manufacturing… ⌘ Read more

Intel Lands Initial Preparations For DSA 3.0 Accelerators In Linux 7.0
Last year we began seeing Linux patches preparing the kernel for Intel Data Streaming Accelerator “DSA” 3.0 IP. Finally with the Linux 7.0 kernel those patches in updated form have now been merged… ⌘ Read more

KVM In Linux 7.0 Adds Support For Virtualizing AMD ERAPS
All of the KVM virtualization feature changes were recently merged for the in-development Linux 7.0 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Bayer Agrees To $7.25 Billion Proposed Settlement Over Thousands of Roundup Cancer Lawsuits
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Agrochemical maker Bayer and attorneys for cancer patients announced a proposed $7.25 billion settlement Tuesday to resolve thousands of U.S. lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller Roundup coul … ⌘ Read more

NTFS3 Driver Sees Improvements In Linux 7.0 While “NTFS Remake” Driver Bakes
The NTFS3 driver maintained by Paragon Software for Microsoft NTFS file-systems today saw a batch of improvements merged for Linux 7.0 This comes as there is also the competing “NTFS Remake” driver that began a few months ago as the “NTFSPLUS” driver. That NTFS Remake driver isn’t looking like it will be submitted for the Linux 7.0 merge window so at least for now the NTFS3 driver continues seeing improvements with the latest mainline kernel code … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Lands New TI RGB LED Driver With “Autonomous Animation Engine” Control
The LED subsystem updates for the Linux kernel typically aren’t too noteworthy each kernel cycle but with Linux 7.0 is a new TI RGB LED driver that captured my attention in being curious over its “autonomous animation engine” integration… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Merges “Significant Improvement” For close_range System Call
The close_range system call for closing all file descriptors “FDs” in a given range should enjoy a nice speed boost with the in-development Linux 7.0 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Nova Lake S Support Added To Intel LPSS Driver In Linux 7.0
The latest Nova Lake enablement work for the Linux kernel to land is adding support for Nova Lake S platforms to the Intel LPSS driver in the upcoming Linux 7.0 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Secondhand Laptop Market Goes ‘Mainstream’ Amid Memory Crunch
Sales of refurbished PCs are on the up amid shortages of key components, including memory chips, that are making brand new devices more expensive. From a report: Stats compiled by market watcher Context show sales of refurbished PCs via distribution climbed 7 percent in calendar Q4 across five of the biggest European markets – Italy, the UK, Germany, Spai … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 CXL Enables AMD Zen 5 Address Translation Feature
A long-in-development feature for AMD EPYC Zen 5 server platforms now merged for the Linux 7.0 kernel is ACPI PRMT-based address translation for the Compute Express Link (CXL) subsystem… ⌘ Read more

RISC-V In Linux 7.0 Brings User-Space CFI & Optimized strlen Assembly
The RISC-V architecture updates have been merged for Linux 7.0 with a few items to note… ⌘ Read more

KPMG Partner Fined Over Using AI To Pass AI Test
A partner at KPMG Australia has been fined $7,000 by the Big Four firm after using AI tools to cheat on an internal training course about using AI. From a report: The unnamed partner was forced to redo the test after uploading training materials into an AI platform to help answer questions on the use of the fast-evolving technology.

More than two dozen staff have been … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Driver Core Changes Bring More Enhancements For Rust Kernel Drivers
Merged a few days ago for the Linux 7.0 kernel were all of the driver core enhancements. As has been the common theme in recent kernel releases, a lot of the driver core code churn revolves around additions for allowing more Rust kernel driver usage… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Better Segregates Legacy CardBus Code To Avoid On Modern PCs
The PCI subsystem updates for Linux 7.0 are aplenty as usual and contain a wide assortment of different fixes and code improvements… ⌘ Read more

Where’s The Evidence That AI Increases Productivity?
IT productivity researcher Erik Brynjolfsson writes in the Financial Times that he’s finally found evidence AI is impacting America’s economy. This week America’s Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a 403,000 drop in 2025’s payroll growth — while real GDP “remained robust, including a 3.7% growth rate in the fourth quarter.”

This decoupling — maintaining high output with sig … ⌘ Read more

OpenRISC With Linux 7.0 Improves Out-Of-The-Box Support For More FPGA Dev Boards
While the OpenRISC project began ten years before RISC-V was started, it hasn’t enjoyed the hardware ecosystem successes of the latter but still the upstream Linux kernel support continues moving forward and the ability to run OpenRISC on FPGA developer boards… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Merges The Code To Replace The Tux Boot Logo At Build Time
Linus Torvalds merged the code this weekend that allows easily replacing the Tux penguin boot logo used during the boot process. This new code optionally allows specifying an alternative boot logo at compile/build time… ⌘ Read more

exFAT Achieves Better Sequential Read Performance With Linux 7.0
The open-source Linux file-system driver for supporting Microsoft’s exFAT now can deliver better sequential read performance with Linux 7.0 thanks to multi-cluster support… ⌘ Read more

Analysis of JWST Data Finds - Old Galaxies in a Young Universe?
Two astrophysicists at Spain’s Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias analyzed data from the James Webb Space Telescope — the most powerful telescope available — on 31 galaxies with an average redshift of 7.3 (when the universe was 700 million years old, according to the standard model). “We found that they are on average ~600 million years old old … ⌘ Read more

NFS Server Adds Dynamic Thread Pool Sizing In Linux 7.0
The NFS server changes for Linux 7.0 happen to include some nice improvements for this big kernel version number release… ⌘ Read more

Power Sequencing Driver For PCIe M.2 Connectors Makes It Into Linux 7.0
The power sequencing subsystem updates have been merged for the Linux 7.0 cycle. Typically not an area of the kernel too exciting but one new driver addition is the “pwrseq-pcie-m2” to provide power sequencing for PCIe M.2 connectors… ⌘ Read more

F2FS Delivers “Several Key Performance Optimizations” With Linux 7.0
The Flash Friendly File-System (F2FS) has multiple performance improvements to provide its users with on the in-development Linux 7.0 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Merges Support For Rock Band 4 PS4 / PS5 Guitars Plus More Laptop Quirks
The HID subsystem changes were merged this week for the ongoing Linux 7.0 kernel merge window. Among the Human Interface Devices (HID) work this cycle were supporting more guitars while also adding more device IDs and different laptop quirks… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Wires Up Arm’s 64-byte Single-Copy Atomic Instructions LS64/LS64V
Beyond all of the exciting Intel/AMD x86_64 changes and improvements to enjoy with the upcoming Linux 7.0, there is one notable ARM64 feature addition this kernel cycle… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.6 Sees Last Minute Fixes, Plasma 6.7 Aims For Painless Samba Shares
KDE’s Plasma 6.6 desktop release is due out next week (17 February) and there’s been some last minute fixes to land. Additionally, KDE Plasma developers continue to be quite active in already landing feature work for Plasma 6.7… ⌘ Read more

Godot 4.7 Making Progress On Vulkan Ray-Tracing
One of the latest exciting developments for the open-source Godot game engine is beginning to lay out support for Vulkan ray-tracing… ⌘ Read more

Detroit Automakers Take $50 Billion Hit
The Detroit Big Three – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – have collectively announced more than $50 billion in write-downs on their electric-vehicle businesses after years of aggressive investment into a transition that, even before Republican lawmakers abolished a $7,500 federal tax credit last fall, was already running below expectations.

U.S. EV sales fell more than 30% in the fourth qua … ⌘ Read more

Multi-Lane SPI Support Merged For Linux 7.0
With the Serial Peripheral Interface “SPI” subsystem updates for the Linux 7.0 kernel comes support for multi-lane SPI… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Lands ML-DSA Quantum-Resistant Signature Support
Adding to the exciting features for the big Linux 7.0 kernel release is support for the Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm “ML-DSA” quantum-resistant signature algorithm… ⌘ Read more

Linux Gets Rid Of Intel 440BX Driver For Old Pentium CPUs After Being Broken For 19+ Years
As some long overdue housekeeping, the Linux 7.0 kernel has removed an Error Detection And Correction “EDAC” driver for the Intel 440BX and 440GX chipset. The driver is being removed not only because that chipset was just used by old Celerons and Pentium II / Pentium III CPUs but that it’s been in the kernel all this time while being known to be broken for 19+ years… ⌘ Read more

Sheaves Ready To Play A Bigger Role In Linux 7.0
The slab memory allocator feature updates have been merged for the Linux 7.0 kernel. Most notable this cycle is expanded use of the recently-introduced Sheaves functionality… ⌘ Read more

Intel Nova Lake Sound Support In Linux 7.0
Merged for the Linux 6.19 kernel was initial Nova Lake S audio support. Now merged this week for the Linux 7.0 kernel is enabling sound support for additional Nova Lake platforms… ⌘ Read more

A Few More ASUS Motherboards Now Support Sensor Reporting With Linux 7.0
All of the hardware monitoring “HWMON” subsystem updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.0 merge window… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 MM Changes Bring Some Very Nice Performance Optimizations
All of the memory management “MM” related patches have now been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.0 merge window… ⌘ Read more

XFS Introducing Autonomous Self-Healing Capabilities With Linux 7.0
The XFS file-system has some interesting new feature work and performance tuning with the Linux 7.0 kernel that will be used by the likes of Fedora 44 and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS this spring… ⌘ Read more

Intel Posts 2026 Update For Cache Aware Scheduling On Linux
Not in time for the current Linux 7.0 cycle but posted for another round of review is Intel’s latest work around Cache Aware Scheduling for enhancing the performance of modern CPUs with multiple cache domains. This is the first set of updates to Cache Aware Scheduling for the new year and succeed the v2 patches from early December. This work not only benefits modern Intel CPUs but our testing has shown can also provide some very nice gains too for … ⌘ Read more

EXT4 In Linux 7.0 Improves Write Performance For Concurrent Direct I/O Writes
Sent out and already merged today for the Linux 7.0 kernel are the EXT4 file-system updates… ⌘ Read more

SPARC & Alpha CPU Ports Still Seeing Activity In 2026 With Linux 7.0
In addition to all of the exciting Intel and AMD x86_64 enhancements that have been landing this week so far for the Linux 7.0 kernel, the aging SPARC, Alpha, and Motorola 680x0 “m68k” CPU ports have also seen some patches for this new kernel… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Networking: Prepping For WiFi 8 UHR While Dropping Last Parallel Port Ethernet Driver
The Linux 7.0 networking pull request showcases two extremes and the diversity and robustness of the open-source kernel ecosystem. Linux 7.0 is laying the groundwork for WiFi 8 Ultra-High Reliability (UHR) support while this kernel version is also bidding farewell to the last Ethernet driver for use over parallel printer ports… ⌘ Read more