Linux 6.19-rc1 Released From Japan - Phoronix

Linux 6.19-rc1 lands early as Linus Torvalds releases from Japan

Linus Torvalds pushed out Linux 6.19-rc1 slightly ahead of the usual schedule while in Japan for the Linux Plumbers Conference and the Kernel Maintainer Summit. Despite the unusual timing and many maintainers traveling, he described the merge window as largely normal.

What stands out in 6.19-rc1:

• Travel and timing: An atypical cadence due to the maintainer events, but steady progress overall.
• Compiler cleanups: Expanded use of automatic compiler cleanup infrastructure across subsystems, with the VFS layer especially notable.
• Rust momentum: The project is shifting from groundwork to real drivers and subsystem development in Rust.
• Patch makeup: Roughly half of rc1 is driver work (GPU, networking, media, sound). The rest covers architecture updates, tooling, Rust support, documentation, and core kernel areas like memory management, the scheduler, and networking.
• For full technical details, refer to the announcement and discussion on LKML.

Additional context from recent Phoronix coverage during the merge window:

• AMDGPU now enabled by default for GCN 1.0/1.1 GPUs
• Ongoing file-system improvements
• Continued preparations for AMD Zen 6 and Intel Nova Lake / Diamond Rapids platforms
• A comprehensive Linux 6.19 feature overview is coming soon

Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.19-rc1-Released