Four new stable kernels for Monday
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.0.2, 6.18.25, 6.12.84, and 6.6.136 stable kernels. As usual, each
contains important fixes throughout; users are advised to upgrade. ⌘ Read more

Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus Provides Exceptional Value For Linux Users
After looking at the new Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus processor earlier this month with its nice performance evolution for Arrow Lake on Linux, today we are looking at the other new Intel desktop CPU offering: the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus that retails for just $219 USD. ⌘ Read more

With Linux 7.1 The Mainline Kernel Now Supports Real-Time “RT” On ARM
The Linux 7.1 mainline kernel will allow building a real-time “PREEMPT_RT” kernel for the ARM architecture with no longer needing any out-of-tree patches… ⌘ Read more

Kernel prepatch 7.1-rc1
Linus has released 7.1-rc1 and closed the
merge window for this release.

Things look fairly normal, although we do have a few different
projects to cull some old hardware support to help minimize
maintenance burden: phasing out i486 support (configs deleted, code
deletions to follow) and independently starting to remove some
really old networking hardware support, and removing some SoC
support that never went anywhere.

But we’re more than making up for … ⌘ Read more

D7VK v1.8 Continues Improving Legacy Direct3D Atop The Vulkan API
D7VK as what began as an implementation of the Direct3D 7 API on top of the Vulkan API, based off DXVK as part of Steam Play (Proton) for D3D8 through D3D11 support, continues enhancing its legacy D3D API support that over time has stretched now from D3D7 to D3D3… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1-rc1 Released With New NTFS Driver, FRED By Default & Much More
The Linux 7.1-rc1 kernel was just released for concluding the Linux 7.1 merge window. A lot of new features are in tow for this next kernel version that will then be out as stable in mid-June… ⌘ Read more

The Linux Kernel Tree About To Hit 40 Million Lines, AMD Driver Above 6 Million Lines
Ahead of the Linux 7.1-rc1 kernel release due out later today for closing the Linux 7.1 merge window, I was curious if all the code removals would lead to a negative change in line count over Linux 7.0. The removals were not enough and Linux 7.1 Git is fast approaching 40 million lines… ⌘ Read more

Apple M3 Support On Asahi Linux Is Approaching The Original Alpha Quality Of The M1
A new progress report from the Asahi Linux project is now published that highlights recent upstreaming work for the Linux 7.0 kernel release as well as the latest additions to the downstream Asahi Linux code. The Asahi Linux project also pushed out their first updated Asahi installer in nearly two years… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Brings Audio Support For The Line6 POD HD PRO & NexiGo N930W Webcam
Following last week’s Linux 7.1 sound subsystem feature pull that added bus keeper support in working toward better Apple Silicon support along with a variety of other new audio hardware support, a secondary set of sound updates were merged as we approach the end of the Linux 7.1 merge window… ⌘ Read more

New NTFS Driver Sees A Number Of Fixes Ahead Of Linux 7.1-rc1
With the Linux 7.1-rc1 kernel release due out tomorrow to cap off the Linux 7.1 merge window, one of the most notable additions this cycle is the introduction of the new NTFS driver that aims to provide better performance and more modern features than the existing NTFS3 in-kernel driver that was originally contributed by Paragon Software… ⌘ Read more

Godot 4.7 Reaches Beta With HDR Output, Ray-Tracing Improvements & Editor Enhancements
Godot 4.7 reached its beta milestone on Friday for this leading open-source, cross-platform game engine… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.7 Enables Overlay Planes For Intel Graphics, More Performance/Efficiency
KDE developers continued to land more feature changes for the upcoming Plasma 6.7 desktop release. It’s a busy spring of fixes, optimizations, and shiny new features for Plasma 6.7… ⌘ Read more

Farewell ISDN, Ham Radio & Old Network Drivers: Linus Torvalds Merges 138k L.O.C. Removal
Linus Torvalds did it! He merged the pull request to rid the Linux kernel of the old Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem and various other old network drivers largely for PCMCIA era network adapters. This was the code suggested for removal given the recent influx of AI/LLM-generated bug reports against this dated code that likely has no active upstream users remaining… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Is Performing Well Overall In Early Benchmarks
With the Linux 7.1 merge window winding down ahead of the planned Linux 7.1-rc1 release on Sunday, I have begun testing out the Linux 7.1 Git state on various systems in my lab. So far Linux 7.1 appears to be looking good in the performance department with seeing a number of performance improvements in different areas but also a few possible regressions. ⌘ Read more

Many Intel & AMD Laptop Improvements Merged For Linux 7.1
As usual in recent years, there were many x86 platform driver changes merged this cycle for benefiting modern AMD Ryzen and Intel Core (Ultra) laptops. A variety of new features and laptop hardware support additions were merged for Linux 7.1… ⌘ Read more

AMD SBI Driver Preps For EPYC Venice With Linux 7.1
The Linux kernel continues getting ready for AMD’s upcoming Zen 6 processors… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers For Long Obsolete Input Hardware: Bye Bus Mouse Support
Beyond Linux looking to remove old drivers due to the surge of AI/LLM bug reports, the Linux 7.1 kernel is also removing some old hardware drivers simply on the basis of long obsolete hardware. The input subsystem saw several drivers removed this week for decades old hardware… ⌘ Read more

Pull Request For Linux To Remove Old Network Drivers, ISDN Subsystem Due To AI/LLM Noise
It was just days ago we reported on a proposal to drop old network drivers due to AI-driven bug reports becoming a burden on upstream kernel developers. Last night that culminated with an initial pull request to clear out some old, unused networking drivers plus also clearing out the entire ISDN subsystem and more… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Removes Some Obsolete PCMCIA Drivers That Likely Haven’t Been Used In Years
In addition to some network drivers on the chopping block due to AI bug reports for obsolete hardware/drivers and Linux 7.1 dropping various drivers for Russia’s Baikal CPUs, the Linux 7.1 kernel as of today also dropped some obsolete PCMCIA host controller drivers… ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Plans First-Ever Voluntary Employee Buyout
Microsoft plans to offer voluntary buyouts for the first time. According to CNBC, “about 7% of U.S. employees are eligible,” with the program being “available to U.S. workers at the senior director level and below whose years of employment and age add up to 70 or higher.” Further details will be provided on May 7. From the report: Last year Microsoft removed some costs throu … ⌘ Read more

Godot 4.7 Will Finally Have HDR Output, Including On Linux With Wayland
The upcoming Godor 4.7 open-source, cross-platform game engine release is rolling out support for high dynamic range (HDR)… ⌘ Read more

Many USB Improvements & New Hardware Merged For Linux 7.1
Ready to go ahead of the Linux 7.1 merge window closing at week’s end are numerous new USB device support additions and other USB subsystem enhancements… ⌘ Read more

Four stable kernel updates
The
7.0.1,
6.19.14,
6.18.24, and
6.12.83
stable kernels have been released; each contains another set of important
fixes. Note that the 6.19.x line ends with 6.19.14. ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Adds Support For 12 New SoCs, Other ARM & RISC-V Hardware
All of the SoC updates were recently merged for the ongoing Linux 7.1 kernel cycle. Most of the activity as usual is on the Arm side but also with some RISC-V additions too for the Linux 7.1 kernel… ⌘ Read more

[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for April 23, 2026
Inside this week’s LWN.net Weekly Edition:

• Front: LLMs and Python bugs; scheduler regression; new Rust traits; dependency cooldowns; 7.1 merge window; Shor’s algorithm; drama at The Document Foundation.

• Briefs: Firefox zero-days; kernel code removal; reproduceible Arch; Debian election; Firefox 150; Forgejo 15.0; Git 2.54.0; KDE Gear 26.04; LillyPond 2.26.0; Rust 1.95.0; Quotes; …

• [Announcements](https:/ … ⌘ Read more

China’s CATL Reveals 621-Mile EV Battery, Under-7-Minute Charging
CATL unveiled a new wave of EV battery tech, “including a lighter battery pack rated for a 1,000-km (621-mile) driving range and an upgraded fast-charging battery that can go from 10 percent to 98 percent in under seven minutes,” reports Interesting Engineering. From the report: The launches were made during a 90-minute event in Beijing ahead … ⌘ Read more

Many Great Networking Improvements Arrive In Linux 7.1
Merged recently to Linux Git were the big set of networking changes for the Linux 7.1 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Four stable kernels for Wednesday
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.0.1, 6.19.14, 6.18.24, and 6.12.83 stable kernels. As usual, each
contains important fixes throughout the tree. Users are encouraged to
upgrade. ⌘ Read more

F2FS, EXT4 & XFS Focus On Fixes For Linux 7.1
The Flash Friendly File-System (F2FS) updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.1 merge window that will wrap up on Sunday. This follows earlier merges for the XFS and EXT4 drivers too… ⌘ Read more

NTFS-3G FUSE Driver Sees First New Release In Four Years
Coming today as a big surprise – one week after the new NTFS file-system driver was merged for Linux 7.1 and separately the existing NTFS3 kernel driver seeing some fixes – is a new release of the NTFS-3G driver providing a FUSE-based user-space driver for NTFS on Linux and other platforms… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Lands Workaround For Arm C1-Pro Erratum
Merged yesterday to the Linux 7.1 kernel is a workaround for an Arm C1-Pro CPU hardware bug around its Scalable Matrix Extension implementation… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Staging Ushered In More Developers To Make Their First Kernel Contributions
Over the weekend Greg Kroah-Hartman sent out his various pull requests for the areas of the kernel he oversees. Among those is the staging area where this time around the notable activity isn’t too much about feature work but many developers making some of their first contributions to the upstream kernel… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 KVM Adds “Very Experimental” Support For pKVM Protected Guests
The Kernel-based Virtual Machine changes were recently merged for the Linux 7.1 merge window for further enhancing KVM as this important piece of the open-source virtualization stack… ⌘ Read more

While New NTFS Driver Merged, NTFS3 Driver Sees Fixes & Minor Changes For Linux 7.1
Last week saw the “NTFS resurrection” as Linux Torvalds put it with the new/overhauled NTFS driver having been merged for Linux 7.1. Even still, the NTFS3 driver that was contributed a few years ago by Paragon Software remains in the mainline kernel and today were some fixes/improvements merged for that existing driver… ⌘ Read more

A Lot Of Memory Management “MM” Improvements Merged For Linux 7.1
Andrew Morton recently sent out his various “MM” related pull requests for the ongoing Linux 7.1 kernel. There are a number of memory management optimizations in this next kernel version, which is always nice to see but all the more so these days with the inflated RAM pricing and other computer component prices… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Kernel Graphics Driver Changes Merged With Intel & AMD Leading The Way
The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel graphics driver and accelerator driver changes for Linux 7.1 were recently merged to Git. As usual, it’s the Intel and AMD kernel graphics drivers seeing a bulk of the interesting open-source GPU driver activity. Plus ongoing work to make Rust-based GPU drivers more viable… ⌘ Read more

JFS Sees Data Integrity Hardening With Linux 7.1
It’s pretty rare nowadays seeing any real changes to the JFS file-system on Linux when there are multiple far superior solutions available. But in any event, the JFS file-system driver has seen a few fixes in Linux 7.1… ⌘ Read more

New Lenovo Legion Go Drivers & More Sony HID Device Support In Linux 7.1
The HID subsystem updates landed this week for the in-development Linux 7.1 kernel that includes new hardware support and other changes… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Adds Some New PCIe Drivers While Nuking Some PCI Drivers
The PCI subsystem updates were merged this week for the Linux 7.1 kernel with a wide assortment of PCI(e) changes from new to old hardware… ⌘ Read more

HP Will Discontinue ‘HP Anyware’ Remote Desktop, Trusted Zero Clients
kriston (Slashdot reader #7,886) writes:

HP Anyware, the new name of the Teradici PCoIP remote desktop solution that was acquired by HP in 2021, is being discontinued.
“Maintenance and support for customers and partners with multi-year terms will continue until 31 October, 2029,” a href=”https://anyware.hp.com/hp-anyware-end-of-life”>according … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Sound Code Adds Bus Keepers: Aiming For Better Apple Silicon Support
The sound subsystem changes were merged this week for Linux 7.1 that include some new hardware support and other useful additions… ⌘ Read more

CachyOS Rolls Out A Super-Charged Linux 7.0 Kernel
The popular Arch Linux based CachyOS has now rolled out the Linux 7.0 kernel to its users. But beyond re-basing against the latest upstream kernel version it is also carrying some extra patches… ⌘ Read more

Intel QAT Zstd, QAT Gen6 Improvements Merged For Linux 7.1
In addition to the notable libcrypto optimizations and improvements merged during this first week of the Linux 7.1 merge window, the main cryptography subsystem pull was also merged. Notable here are the Intel QuickAssist (QAT) improvements… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Sees RAID Fixes, IO_uring Enhancements
The block subsystem and IO_uring changes were merged this week for Linux 7.1 in continuing to enhance Linux storage capabilities… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Adds New AMD SMCA Bank Types, Presumably For Upcoming EPYC Venice
The AMD Machine Check Exception “mce_amd” driver as part of the Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) subsystem is introducing support for new SMCA bank types on AMD platforms. Given the timing these new bank types are presumably for AMD’s upcoming Zen 6 / EPYC Venice hardware… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Scheduler Changes May Benefit Some Workloads
The scheduler changes for Linux 7.1 are now in place and may bring performance benefits for at least some systems and workloads… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Lands High Resolution Timer “HRTIMER” Overhaul
Merged this week for Linux 7.1 was a rework of the high resolution timer “HRTIMER” subsystem for reducing the overhead of frequently-armed timers, such as the HRTICK scheduler timer. The HRTICK scheduler timer is useful for enhancing system responsiveness and fairness… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.7 Ready With Wayland Session Management, Other New Improvements
KDE Plasma 6.7 enjoyed a lot of recent feature development work thanks to a developer sprint in Graz, Austria. Also because of that developer sprint, This Week In Plasma wasn’t published last week and so in turn a new issue is now available to highlight the changes over the past two weeks… ⌘ Read more

The “NTFS Resurrection” Has Occurred For Linux 7.1
As a very exciting follow-up to the recent article around the new NTFS driver being submitted for Linux 7.1 to address the shortcomings of the current Paragon NTFS3 driver and the prior read-only NTFS kernel driver, that work has been merged!.. ⌘ Read more

New/Overhauled NTFS Driver Merged For Linux 7.1
As a very exciting follow-up to the recent article around the new NTFS driver being submitted for Linux 7.1 to address the shortcomings of the current Paragon NTFS3 driver and the prior read-only NTFS kernel driver, that work has been merged!.. ⌘ Read more