The new version 7.4 of the Linux kernel includes almost 20 thousand changes

Linus Torvalds released the first release candidate of the Linux 7.4 kernel and stated that the project has found a "much healthier model" for working with artificial intelligence. In his weekly update on the state of the kernel, he called this merge window "BIG": it included almost 20,000 commits compared to the usual ~15,000 that developers submit for a new version of the kernel.

"I think the reason is already obvious, but I take it as a good sign: I much prefer seeing the flow of AI-initiated work in the merge window than when they appear mainly as additional fixes during the -rc period," Torvalds wrote. He hopes that the unusually large number of commits "indicates that AI fixes are becoming part of normal development, rather than a stream of patches throughout the stabilization phase." "I think this is a much healthier model," he added, noting that "people expect 7.4 to be the next LTS release, and that's another independent reason why some releases are larger than others. So it may not just be about the flow of AI patches."

At the same time, Torvalds is not entirely sure that all AI patches are equally useful: he described the release as "big and full of fixes for issues found by AI (and increasingly patches are also suggested by AI, although they are often rewritten)." A significant portion of the changes this time are fixes in AMD GPU registers and bitmasks, making up a third of all changes. "We've been through this before and will surely see it many more times in the future. Just ignore the noise," Torvalds wrote.

Phoronix observers attribute the main inclusions in Linux 7.4 to improved support for AMD, Apple, and Google processors, enhanced security for virtual machines, support for a 10-inch Raspberry Pi monitor, and additional work on running Linux on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 SoC.