Linus Torvalds tagged Linux 7.4-rc1 on schedule yesterday, closing what Phoronix calls the merge window with the most commits ever.
How big
The Register says it’s almost 20,000 commits, against the usual ~15,000. AMD GPU register offsets and bit masks alone make up about a third of the changes. Torvalds: “This is a *BIG* merge window.”
What’s in it
- AMD Ryzen Zen 6 support squared away ahead of the next client CPUs
- AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 on by default, plus AMD PerfOpt for Radeon iGPUs running AI/LLM work
- Intel IPU8 for Nova Lake laptops and more Snapdragon X2 laptop enablement
- Optional buffered IOmap for EXT4, faster kernel builds, and basic Apple M4 enablement (not ready for end users yet)
- Google Tensor G5 / Pixel 10 support in mainline
If nothing slips, Phoronix expects the final release around December 20, and it’s likely to be this year’s LTS kernel.
The AI part
Torvalds says AI is a big reason the window was so large, and he’s taking that as a good sign. He’s “*much* happier with the flood of AI triggered work going into the merge window than it showing up mainly as extra fixes during the -rc period,” and calls it “a much healthier model.” He’s not starry-eyed about it, though: more patches are AI-suggested, “although they often get rewritten.”
My take
That fits what he said a week ago about AI being fine in the hands of competent devs. The fixes are landing where they belong, with humans still reviewing and rewriting. Time for the rc cycle to shake it out.
God Bless, and Use the Source!
