Linus Torvalds released Linux 7.1-rc3 on a Sunday that doubled as Mother’s Day. The latest test build for the next major kernel carries an unusually high volume of changes. Networking accounts for roughly one third of the patches. That includes updates to drivers, core code and related self-tests.
Torvalds addressed the size directly in his announcement. “It’s Sunday afternoon, and we all know what that means: Mother’s Day. But also your regularly scheduled kernel release candidate,” he wrote. “And I think this answers the ‘is 7.1 continuing the larger size pattern that we saw with 7.0?’ question, and the answer is yes: that wasn’t a fluke brought on by a .0 release – it simply seems to be the new normal.” The observation comes straight from his posting on the Linux Kernel Mailing List.
So the kernel grows. Again. This cycle follows a pattern set during the 7.0 development. Developers remove old code. They delete outdated drivers and protocols. Yet the total line count keeps climbing. The tree now approaches 40 million lines. Phoronix reported that even after removals during the 7.1 merge window, the Git tree measured nearly 39.9 million lines as of late April.
Networking dominates rc3. Core improvements mix with driver fixes. Self-tests expand to cover new behavior. The remaining patches scatter across subsystems. Sound and GPU drivers see notable work. Architecture updates touch PowerPC, x86, LoongArch and PARISC. SMB code receives attention. Core kernel fixes arrive alongside Rust infrastructure updates, SELinux changes and documentation tweaks. Phoronix covered the release in detail.
One specific addition stands out. Intel enabled Auto Counter Reload for Xeon Diamond Rapids processors. The feature improves performance monitoring on those server chips. Bug fixes fill the rest of the update. Regressions get addressed. Security issues receive patches too. Nothing here screams drama. The work feels routine for this stage of development.
Yet the overall direction of 7.1 carries weight. The kernel gains a new NTFS implementation. It delivers better performance and modern features compared with the existing driver. Hardware support expands. New Intel Nova Lake P graphics arrive. AMD readies additional graphics hardware. Twelve fresh ARM and RISC-V system-on-chips gain compatibility.
Real-time capabilities reach 32-bit ARM. Mainline now supports building PREEMPT_RT kernels for those older architectures without out-of-tree patches. This marks a significant step for embedded and industrial users who rely on deterministic timing. x86 systems already enjoyed this support. ARM64, RISC-V and LoongArch followed in recent releases.
Security hardens further. Intel’s Linear Address Space Separation, known as LASS, reaches solid shape. The technology helps isolate user and kernel address spaces more effectively. On the performance side, Intel’s FRED, or Flexible Return and Event Delivery, becomes default for Panther Lake and future platforms. AMD gains CPPC performance priority handling. Idle behavior for SMT siblings sees incremental gains.
Drivers evolve. Apple Silicon systems benefit from an SMC power driver that exposes battery metrics. AMDGPU gains DC support for older GCN 1.1 APUs such as Kaveri. Ryzen AI NPUs receive power estimation. Intel’s QuickAssist Technology adds Zstd compression. These additions reflect the hardware reality developers face today. New chips. New accelerators. New expectations.
Older technology exits. The kernel phases out Intel 486 CPU support. ISDN drivers disappear. Old network protocols and bus mouse code go away. PCMCIA and certain PCI drivers reach end of life. UDP-Lite support ends. Such cleanups free maintainers from legacy burdens. They also risk affecting niche users. One VFS change merged earlier in the cycle may slow 32-bit systems due to cache alignment and slab sizing shifts on modern 64-bit focused code.
Early testing shows promise. Benchmarks of the 7.1 Git tree against the 7.0 stable release reveal mostly gains across AMD EPYC server systems. Some areas post clear improvements. A few tests hint at small regressions. Michael Larabel at Phoronix noted the results look good overall while cautioning that more hardware testing continues. The final 7.1 release targets mid-June. That gives time for additional candidates and fixes.
AI influences the process too. Recent discussion on X points to tools surfacing corner cases. Small patches flow in response. One Japanese account observed that kernel bloat now appears the new normal because AI finds edge conditions that require code adjustments. Networking maintainer David Miller removed over 138,000 lines of old drivers and protocols in April. The size still grew.
This release candidate fits a pattern. The merge window for 7.1 closed with rc1 at the end of April. Stabilization now rules. Torvalds described rc2 as fairly normal despite inflated patch statistics caused by KVM selftest cleanups. Rc3 continues the theme. Changes spread wide but target real issues.
Distributions will watch closely. Enterprise users test for compatibility. Gaming platforms such as the Steam Deck already benefited from audio fixes in rc2. GPU drivers matter for desktop performance. Networking updates affect servers and cloud workloads alike. The kernel’s expanding footprint brings both capability and complexity.
Developers continue to modernize. Custom restart handlers on x86 now align with other architectures. LoongArch gains HIGHMEM support. Experimental protected KVM guests advance on ARM. The Rust infrastructure sees steady progress even if the language’s kernel presence remains limited for now.
Expect more candidates. Each one should shrink in scope. The goal stays a stable 7.1 by mid-June. For those running the release candidates, the networking focus may deliver immediate benefits in throughput or latency. Others will wait for the final tag and distribution integration.
The Linux kernel doesn’t stand still. It absorbs new hardware. It sheds dead weight. It responds to security research and performance demands. Version 7.1 continues that long tradition. Bigger than before. More capable in targeted areas. And, if Torvalds reads the trend correctly, just the start of a new scale for future releases.
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