Linus Torvalds has announced the first Release Candidate (RC) for the upcoming Linux 7.0 kernel series, now available for public testing. This announcement comes two weeks after the release of Linux kernel 6.19, following the opening of the merge window for version 7.0.
The first RC can be downloaded from Linus Torvalds’s Git tree. As with previous major kernel releases, the increment to version 7.0 signifies a new sequence rather than an indication of new features. Notably, one significant change is that Rust support is now stable, marking its transition out of the experimental phase, alongside numerous Rust updates in this cycle.
Torvalds humorously remarked, “We have a new major number purely because I’m easily confused and not good with big numbers,” emphasizing that the version change does not correlate to groundbreaking features or the abandonment of older interfaces. The new version serves as a "solid progress" marker.
In addition to stable Rust support, Linux kernel 7.0 introduces various new features including:
Further enhancements include autonomous self-healing capabilities for the XFS file system, support for SPI controllers with multiple data lanes, BPF token access control to SELinux, post-quantum signature support via ML-DSA, and LZMA compression as the default for the EROFS file system.
The anticipated final release of Linux kernel 7.0 is scheduled for mid-March 2026, potentially landing on March 12 or March 19, depending on the total number of RC milestones published leading up to the release.
For more details, you can view the Linux Kernel Mailing List announcement here. Additional information regarding Linux 7.0 is available on this page.
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