Back in July, Linus Torvalds feared that the next Linux kernel update might be “one of those releases that can drag on,” due to a major holiday in July-August.
Turns out his concerns were unfounded and the new version arrived: “Nothing particularly weird or scary happened in the last week, so there’s no excuse for delaying the release of the 6.5 version,” Torvalds announced on August 27.
Torvalds, however, encourages developers to “test this final version one last time”. So, before embarking on creating new versions of Linux 6.5, developers would be well advised to thoroughly check the new kernel before deploying it.
Improved performance and power usage across all cores
These developers include those working on Linux distros such as Arch, which are often interested in the latest releases, and those working on the upcoming Ubuntu 23.10 release, whose developers plan to use Linux version 6.5.
For developers who want to experiment, what does this new version of Linux bring us? The answer is simple: many things.
The biggest new thing for servers – and cloud Linux users – is P-State support for AMD’s Ryzen processors. This support should result in improved performance and power usage across all CPU cores. Intel Alder Lake processors have also benefited from improved load balancing.
Linux now supports ACPI interface
Fans of the RISC-V architecture will be pleased to find that Linux now supports ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). ACPI is used in Linux and other operating systems for power management. It is essential for laptops and other battery-powered systems.
For added security, people who use Usermode Linux-based virtual machines or sandboxes for testing purposes, or who run multiple versions of Linux at once, now have Landlock support. Landock is a Linux security module that allows applications to sandbox themselves by selecting directory access rights.
To facilitate exchanges, Linux 6.5 now supports USB 4v2. This new USB-C standard will support up to 120 Gbps. While we’re still getting used to Wi-Fi 6E, the Wi-Fi Alliance is already working on introducing Wi-Fi 7. When Wi-Fi 7 arrives, with its theoretical maximum speed of 46 Gbps, Linux will be ready.
Bcachefs is not present
As usual, the new Linux kernel has many more built-in audio and graphics card drivers.
There is, however, one feature that did not make it into Linux 6.5. This is the Bcachefs file system. This copy-on-write file system is more reliable and more robust than its competitors. It supports multiple devices, replication, erasure coding, compression, encryption, snapshots, and caching.
Although the Bcachefs filesystem looks good, there have been a lot of developers arguing about the development process. These disputes led Torvalds to decide not to incorporate Bcachefs into Linux 6.5. Hopefully all these issues will be resolved and Bcachefs will eventually be integrated into Linux 6.6.
Source: “ZDNet.com”