Linux 5.15-rc1 Brings New NTFS Driver, In-Kernel SMB3 Server, AMD Changes, Intel DG2

As expected this evening the Linux 5.15-rc1 kernel was released to top off the two week merge window that saw many changes to the kernel.

Tomorrow I'll have published our extensive feature overview of Linux 5.15 changes, but some of the highlights include Paragon NTFS3 as the new NTFS file-system driver, KSMBD as an in-kernel SMB3 file server, opt-in L1d cache flushing on context switching, continued Apple M1 bring-up work, many AMD improvements, and initial Intel DG2/Alchemist and XeHP discrete graphics bring-up work, among a lot of other new hardware enablement.

Linus Torvalds wrote of Linux 5.15-rc1 in the announcement, "So 5.15 isn't shaping up to be a particularly large release, at least in number of commits. At only just over 10k non-merge commits, this is in fact the smallest rc1 we have had in the 5.x series. We're usually hovering in the 12-14k commit range. That said, counting commits isn't necessarily the best measure, and that might be particularly true this time around. We have a few new subsystems, with NTFSv3 and ksmbd standing out. And as a result, when you look at the stats on a "lines changed" basis, 5.15-rc1 ends up looking much more middle-of-the-road. It still doesn't look like a particularly _big_ merge window, but also not remotely the smallest one."

Stay tuned for the complete Linux 5.15 feature overview and our Linux 5.15 kernel benchmarks. Linux 5.15 stable should be out in November.