Linus Torvalds has released the first release candidate for Linux 7.4 following a notably large merge window. The snapshot, 7.4-rc1, arrives after two weeks of feature merges and contains roughly 20,000 commits — a step up from the kernel’s more typical ~15,000-commit merge. With substantial AMD register updates and a broad set of driver, architecture, filesystem and tooling changes, this release candidate sets the stage for an intensive stabilization period over the coming weeks.
What made this merge window so large
Torvalds described the merge window for 7.4 as “BIG,” and attributed much of that growth to AI-related work landing during the merge window rather than trickling in later as fixes. He also noted some disruption tied to his vacation, and mentioned he still has two pull requests sitting in his inbox that he is considering for inclusion — though he chose not to delay rc1 for them. There was community speculation that part of the motivation for the rush of features may be expectations that 7.4 could become the next Long Term Support (LTS) release, encouraging contributors to land features now.
Highlights of 7.4-rc1
The 7.4-rc1 tree contains nearly 20,000 commits and a large diff log. One standout is a substantial AMD hardware register dump that adds huge headers: Torvalds says about a third of the patch is made up of AMD GPU register offsets and bit masks. Beyond that, the release candidate includes updates across drivers, architectures, filesystems, core kernel code and development tooling — a broad cross-section of the kernel tree.
Release cadence and what to expect next
This rc1 is the first of roughly seven or eight release candidates expected over the next two months as the project moves toward a stable 7.4 release. The release-candidate phase will focus on stabilizing the new features that landed during the merge window; while Torvalds expressed relief that much of the AI-related work arrived early, he did not rule out a wave of fixes during the rc cycle.
Recent and downstream impacts
Separately, Linux 7.3.1 has just been released, so distributions that track kernel updates tightly—Arch-based distros and Fedora, for example—should begin showing those updates soon if they haven’t already. Once 7.4 completes its rc cycle and the stable release is published, downstream distros will evaluate and integrate the new kernel according to their own testing and support timelines.
Licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0 International