Torvalds: Linux kernel out of stabilization phase, healthier AI model
The gist
Linux creator Linus Torvalds released Linux 7.4-rc1 with almost 20,000 commits versus the usual ~15,000.
He says AI work arriving early, not as late fixes, is a healthier model.
How it unfolded
- Oct 18, 2026Linux 7.3 was released, opening the Linux 7.4 merge window.
- Nov 1, 2026Torvalds released Linux 7.4-rc1, closing a merge window with almost 20,000 commits versus the usual ~15,000, and said the release was full of fixes found by AI.
- Nov 1, 2026AMD GPU register offsets and bit masks made up a third of the changes in this release.