Linux 7.3 Adds Support For Several Newer RISC-V Extensions
With the in-development Linux 7.3 is support for discovering and enumerating support for several newer RISC-V ISA extensions. Plus there are improvements to its control flow integrity Shadow Stack handling, CPU context switch support for QoS tagging, using UEFI runtime services for restart and powering off, and other improvements… ⌘ Read more
AMD k10temp Driver Adds EPYC Zen 5 Per-CCD Temperature Monitoring With Linux 7.3
Merged last week for the Linux 7.3 kernel were all the hardware monitoring (HWMON) driver updates for Linux 7.3, which included supporting several more ASUS desktop motherboards, a few AIO liquid cooling products, more Lenovo system support, and per-CCD temperature monitoring on AMD EPYC 9005 server processors… ⌘ Read more
Could Mecha Comet’s Linux PC-Phone Hybrid Be the Future of Linux Smartphones?
3,346 backers pledged $1,198,844 on Kickstarter to build the (modular) handheld Linux computer, the Mecha Comet. It’s slightly bigger and heavier than your smartphone, with a 4-inch AMOLED display and loaded up with things like microphones, speakers, a SIM tray, two USB ports and a mini HDMI port. There’s three separate k … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Improving RAID 5/6 Benchmark-Based Algorithm Selection
Following the main set of memory management “MM” changes submitted for Linux 7.3, Andrew Morton sent in his “non-MM” pull request of the other patches he’s been collecting from various developers for this next Linux kernel release. Standing out there were some improvements to the RAID 5/6 benchmark-based algorithm selection… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Better Protects Against Buggy EFI Firmware Taking Down The Rest Of User-Space
The EFI updates were merged today for the in-development Linux 7.3 kernel. Most notable with the EFI updates is now enforcing a timeout foe EFI runtime service completions rather than potentially hanging indefinitely… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Delivers Graphics Driver Improvements From Old GPUs To Next-Gen Hardware
The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) subsystem updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.3 merge window. There is a lot of exciting GPU kernel driver improvements this cycle ranging from some notable enhancements to old AMD Radeon graphics hardware up through enabling support for some next-generation AMD graphics IP blocks to over on the Intel side where Nova Lake S graphics are being enabled by default… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Makes Preparations Toward Upstreaming FAMFS File-System
The NVDIMM and direct access (DAX) patches have been merged for the Linux 7.3 cycle. Most of the DAX/NVDIMM activity this cycle is on making preparations for the upcoming submission of Micron’s FAMFS file-system… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Introduces New AES Encryption APIs - Will Open Up More Performance
Eric Biggers of Google continues carrying out great work on the Linux kernel crypto code. For Linux 7.3 he’s landed work on new library APIs for most of the AES encryption modes used within the kernel. Moving forward this will open the door to more performance optimizations, reducing code duplication, and other enhancements… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Input Subsystem Updates Merged With Security Fixes, Other Improvements
The big set of input subsystem updates were merged earlier this week for the Linux 7.3 cycle. It’s a random assortment of different improvements as well as bug/security fixes driven in part by the flow of AI/LLM generated discoveries… ⌘ Read more
Longtime Linux CIFS/SMB3 Maintainer Passes Away
There is a changing of the guard with Linux 7.3 as the maintainer of the Common Internet File System (CIFS) / SMB3 code within the Linux kernel. Longtime maintainer, principal Linux CIFS author, and current Microsoft employee Steve French has stepped down due to health reasons… ⌘ Read more
eCryptfs Sees Fixes For Potential Malicious Intent, Some Dating Back To Its 2006 Debut
The eCryptfs stacked cryptographic filesystem implementation for the Linux kernel to transparently encrypt files saw a number of bug fixes for the Linux 7.3 kernel. A number of these bug fixes deal with potential maliciously-crafted data and vulnerable going back to the 2006 introduction of eCryptfs as this option known for its use on Ubuntu home directory encryption and Chrome OS… ⌘ Read more
Apple HFS / HFS+ File-System Support Continues Seeing Fixes With Linux 7.3
In early 2025 it was being discussed to potentially drop the HFS and HFS+ file-system support with the code having been orphaned over a decade and becoming a maintenance burden. But that dismal outlook quickly turned around with some developers stepping up to maintain the old Apple file-system support. Over a year later, fortunately, it’s turned out to be a success story with more HFS/HFS+ file-system fixes continuing to work their way into the … ⌘ Read more
Longtime Linux CIFS/SMB3 Maintainer Steps Down
There is a changing of the guard with Linux 7.3 as the maintainer of the Common Internet File System (CIFS) / SMB3 code within the Linux kernel. Longtime maintainer, principal Linux CIFS author, and current Microsoft employee Steve French has stepped down due to health reasons… ⌘ Read more
Sched_ext’s Sub-Scheduler Support Now “Feature Complete” With Linux 7.3
The extensible scheduler framework “sched_ext” that allows for custom schedulers as BPF programs has been working on sub-scheduler support in recent kernel cycles. With Linux 7.3, sub-scheduler support is now deemed feature complete… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 x86/mm Lands Patches To Greatly Improve Latency-Sensitive Workloads
The highlight of this week’s x86/mm pull request of changes for the Linux 7.3 kernel are fixes that reduce the time that the TLB flushing code has interrupts disabled. This helps significantly with latency-sensitive workloads but Intel engineer Dave Hansen noted in the pull request that “it’s certainly something to keep an eye on” in looking out for any regressions… ⌘ Read more
For the first time in probably 30 years, I played a game of M.U.L.E. tonight (and won!).
Granted, it was a beginner-level game, with a beginner-level alien against 3 computer players, but… I’m just sayin’.
I even lost one of my tracts of land due to it not being “recorded”, and I still won.
Take that, Mechtrons!
Linux 7.3 Lands Improvements For Voodoo 3 / 4 / 5 & Vintage Atari Computers In 2026
At a time when Linux continues dropping older hardware drivers due to the influx of AI/LLM-generated bug reports and patches for hardware extremely unlikely to be used with modern versions of the mainline Linux kernel, Voodoo graphics cards and vintage Atari computers are seeing some reprieve with the upcoming Linux 7.3 kernel release… ⌘ Read more
Framework Laptop 16 With GeForce RTX 5070 12GB, One-Piece Keyboard & Haptic Touchpad
While the past few weeks have been quite busy with the new Framework Laptop 13 Pro testing with that all-new laptop model and paired with Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake”, at the same time Framework Computer has begun shipping some updated components for the Framework Laptop 16 laptop. If looking for a bit more GPU compute power hor larger form factor than the 13-inch model, the Framework Laptop 16 can now be equipped … ⌘ Read more
Intel Computer Vision Sensing Driver Now Ready For Nova Lake
The main set of media subsystem updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.3 merge window. Notable this round is the Intel Computer Vision Sensing “CVS” driver merged the previous cycle now supporting next-gen Nova Lake platforms… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Cleans Up Stack Randomization, Ensures It Happen As Early As Possible
Merged this week for the Linux 7.3 kernel was a big clean-up to the stack randomization code for better security on Linux systems and helping unify some of the architecture-specific code… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Ready With CXL Type-2 Driver Support For AMD Solarflare NICs
With the mainline Linux 7.2 kernel there is now the basic support in place for CXL Type-2 accelerator drivers within the CXL core subsystem code. The first in-tree Type-2 driver with the Linux kernel is for the new AMD Solarflare NIC hardware… ⌘ Read more
Intel Mesa Linux Drivers Now Treating Nova Lake S / U / H / HX As Stable
Intel’s open-source Mesa drivers for Iris Gallium3D (OpenGL) and ANV (Vulkan) on Linux are no longer treating next-gen Nova Lake processors with integrated graphics as experimental and off-by-default. With today’s Mesa 26.3-devel code, the Intel driver code across Nova Lake’s S, U, H, and HX product families are considered stable and enabled by default… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Network Changes Merged But Developers “Completely Overwhelmed” Due To AI/LLMs
All of the networking subsystem feature updates were merged today for the Linux 7.3 kernel’s merge window. There are a lot of wired and wireless networking improvements this cycle but also a ton of bug fixes – including many not so important fixes spun up by AI/LLM agents. The networking subsystem maintainers admit now they are “completely overwhelmed” due to this code churn from the output of AI large language models… ⌘ Read more
FSCRYPT Sees Cleanup With Linux 7.3 To Open Door For More Features Like Btrfs Encryption
FSCRYPT is the Linux file-system encryption framework for supporting per-directory, transparent encryption. FSCRYPT so far is used by the likes of EXT4, F2FS, and CephFS. For Linux 7.3 there is an important clean-up to the FSCRYPT code to simplify it while also opening the door for new features moving forward into future kernel versions… ⌘ Read more
Linux Driver Posted For The PreSonus Quantum 2626: A ~$700 Thunderbolt Audio Interface
The PreSonus Quantum 2626 is a high-end, Thunderbolt 3 based audio interface. PreSonus just maintains Windows and macOS drivers for this high-end audio interface while now an open-source Linux driver has been posted after being independently developed via reverse engineering… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Cleans Up The Code For Disabling Of Legacy 32-bit Time Support
The Linux kernel has supported the CONFIG_COMPAT_32BIT_TIME Kconfig build time option for optionally disabling of legacy 32-bit time system call support. This is intended to disable the code that uses a 32-bit integer for time that is thus not Year 2038 safe, but at the cost of breaking compatibility for legacy 32-bit applications. Even if building without Linux 32-bit time support, it turns out some 32-bit time code persisted but that … ⌘ Read more
EXT4 Preps More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.3
In addition to the IOmap improvements helping EXT4 performance in Linux 7.3, the main EXT4 feature pull request has now been submitted for this next kernel version. That pull is set to land yet more performance optimizations for EXT4… ⌘ Read more
Stripe Buys AI Startup OpenRouter For $7.5 Billion
Stripe is acquiring AI model marketplace OpenRouter as it pushes beyond payments into the infrastructure behind AI applications. According to The New York Times, the deal is reportedly valued at about $7.5 billion, with $1.5 billion allocated to OpenRouter’s founders. Less than three months ago the company was valued at about $1.3 billion. CNBC reports: OpenRouter has become … ⌘ Read more
Two Very Exciting Memory Management Optimizations Going Into Linux 7.3
Andrew Morton on Tuesday sent out all of the memory management “MM” updates for the Linux 7.3 merge window. The MM pull was particularly heavy as he noted 1,250 “added-to-MM” emails were sent out this cycle compared to 920 the prior cycle. With a lot of patch churn, he also turned to Google’s Gemini AI for writing his patch summaries. In going through the very verbose AI-generated summary, there are two patch series that get me excited on the performance … ⌘ Read more
Btrfs Ready With More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.3: Some ~3x To ~5x Wins
David Sterba of SUSE sent in the Btrfs file-system feature updates today that target the Linux 7.3 merge window. Among other changes are more performance improvements for this next version of the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more
It’s time to enter the Torment Hexus for some roguelike match-3 battling
I’m a bit of a sucker for match-3 games and Torment Hexus has style oozing out of it, so it was a must-played for me and it’s great.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Deprecates Many Older 32-bit ARM Platforms, Orphans Hundreds Of Drivers
All of the SoC updates have been merged for the Linux 7.3 kernel that include adding some new SoCs as well as deprecating several older 32-bit ARM platforms. In turn with those platforms deprecated, “hundreds” of drivers are now orphaned in the process… ⌘ Read more
Linux VRAM management set for more improvements with kernel 7.3
Valve contractor Natalie Vock blogged about more work to improve VRAM management on Linux, and we’re set to see even more improvements with kernel 7.3.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Proton Experimental brings fixes for Company of Heroes 3, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Arma 3 and more
Valve just launched the latest Proton Experimental update to improve gaming on Linux / SteamOS, Steam Deck and Steam Machine - here’s all that’s changed.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/pr … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Scheduler Improvements: Help For Gaming, Hybrid CPUs, Lower Scheduler Latency
The exciting set of scheduler updates have been merged for the Linux 7.3 merge window… ⌘ Read more
New AMD Low-Power Core & Unified Intel/AMD CPU Core Type Handling In Linux 7.3
Covered first on Phoronix back in June was an AMD Linux patch for introducing a new “low power” CPU core type to complement their typical “performance” cores and their “efficiency” cores like with Zen 4C/5C. That low power core is presumed for some Zen 6 clients and that integration is now merged for Linux 7.3 as well as unifying the Intel/AMD CPU core type handling… ⌘ Read more
Memory Prices Climb 500% In 12 Months
RAM prices have exploded over the past year, with some DDR5 kits approaching 500% year-over-year increases and a 128GB kit now selling for $3,399, which is more than 10 times its previous low. Tom’s Hardware reports: Things improve as you step down the memory capacities and speed tiers, but not as much as we’d like. You’re still looking at $392 for a memory kit that was just $72 last year. To rein … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Adds New “bpf_sock_read_xattr” Feature For systemd, BPF Programs
Merged earlier this year for Linux 7.1 was extended attributes on sockets support as a feature sought after by the likes of GNOME and systemd for helping with Varlink IPC usage and other purposes. A limitation though of the functionality has been no efficient means for a BPF program to read those user extended attribute labels back. But with Linux 7.3 that’s being addressed with the new bpf_sock_read_xattr() kernel function… ⌘ Read more
IOmap Improvement For Linux 7.3 Takes EXT4 & XFS Performance Further
As part of the VFS pull requests now merged to the Linux 7.3 development kernel was an improvement to the IOmap framework used by various file-systems for mapping logical file byte offsets in memory to their physical locations on storage. With the now-merged code, this modern block mapping framework is allowing better performance at least for the EXT4 file-system… ⌘ Read more
Framework Laptop 12 Updated For Intel Wildcat Lake, Shipping Starts In October
Last year Framework Computer launched the Framework Laptop 12 as an upgrade-friendly and Linux-compatible 2-in-1 laptop. The Framework Laptop 12 was originally powered by Intel Core 13th Gen “Raptor Lake” low-end processor while now Framework is adding Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” as an upgrade or for new Laptop 12 orders… ⌘ Read more
Framework Laptop 12 gets Fedora KDE Linux on pre-builts, along with new Intel Core Series 3 processors
Nice to see an expansion of Linux on devices, with the Framework Laptop 12 getting support for pre-builts to ship with Fedora KDE 44 and Intel Core Series 3.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/ … ⌘ Read more
Rust For Linux 7.3 Begins Seeing Fixes To Prepare For Rust’s GCC Backend
In addition to the POWER/PowerPC code adding Rust kernel support, the main set of Rust programming language updates for the Linux 7.3 kernel have now been submitted. Most notable are early fixes toward eventually allowing the experimental Rust GCC back-end to be used as an alternative to the official rustc compiler with LLVM code generation… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Corrects Faulty Behavior Of FAT File-System Driver For Filenames Too Fat
It’s not too often that the Linux FAT driver for FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 format support receives updates worth mentioning. For Linux 7.3 there is one patch though and it’s due to the driver until now lacking an upper-bounds check on the length of the filename, which could lead to some unexpected situations with extremely long filenames… ⌘ Read more
Lenovo Lands New Watchdog Driver In Linux 7.3 For Their SE30G2 + SE60 Edge AI Computers
When it comes to the watchdog driver changes for Linux 7.3, standing out is the new Lenovo driver for their upcoming ThinkEdge AI edge computing systems… ⌘ Read more
Intel Enables Buffer Compression For Better Gaming Performance With DXVK
Merged today to Mesa 26.3-devel is a nice performance boost for Intel graphics with Valve’s Steam Play when using DXVK for Direct3D 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 over the Vulkan API. The open-source Intel ANV driver is seeing up to 5% better performance with DXVK… ⌘ Read more
XFS Lands FALLOC_FL_WRITE_ZEROES For Efficiency Improvement In Linux 7.3
The XFS file-system improvements have been merged for Linux 7.3. For end-users the only notable change for this file-system on the new kernel is adding support for FALLOC_FL_WRITE_ZEROES… ⌘ Read more
EFS & FreeVxFS File-Systems Get Booted While FailFS Merged For Linux 7.3
Among the early pull requests merged today by Linus Torvalds for the Linux 7.3 kernel cycle were removal of some ancient file-systems while adding in a new pseudo file-system… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 To Land Initial Code Improving vRAM Management, More Improvements Coming
Earlier this year Natalie Vock of Valve’s Linux graphics team laid out some patches for improving the Linux gaming experience for systems with limited vRAM. The kernel work for improving that video memory management is set to be introduced in the Linux 7.3 kernel. While that’s a celebration on its own, Vock is pursuing more improvements still for bettering the Linux GPU driver video memory management behavior… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 SMP Improvement To Help Reduce Latency, Improve Real-Time Performance
Among the pull requests sent out today now that the Linux 7.3 merge window is open are the SMP improvements for this next kernel version. Standing out among the SMP code are some enhancements for helping reduce latency and ultimately enhancing real-time Linux performance… ⌘ Read more
Intel & AMD Power Management Driver Improvements Ready For Linux 7.3
In advance of the Linux 7.3 merge window opening, Linux power management subsystem maintainer Rafael Wysocki of Intel submitted all the power management, ACPI, and thermal control code. As not too much of a surprise, Intel and AMD driver updates dominate the power management changes for Linux 7.3… ⌘ Read more