Linux 7.3 Released With Faster I/O Performance, AMD Zen 6 Preparations & More

The Linux 7.3 kernel is out today for an on-time release of this next stable kernel version. Over the past week the bug/regression fixes, including the continued flow of AI/LLM churn, continued hitting Linux Git ahead of this stable debut. Some of the material merged over this past week included a fix for some varying, rare SMP boot hangs going back to 2024, workarounds for the Samsung 990 PRO and 990 EVO Plus SSDs on select firmware versions lying about capabilities, Darrick Wong stepping down after 23 years being heavily involved in Linux kernel development, and other fixes. Linux 7.3 delivers many exciting improvements from faster I/O on modern systems to more AMD Zen 6 platform preparations, Steam Controller 2026 kernel driver support, improvements for older AMD GPUs, improved vRAM management for those on systems with limited video memory capacity, and a lot of other exciting work. See the Linux 7.3 feature list for the more exhaustive look at the many exciting changes for Linux 7.3. Grab Linux 7.3 from kernel.org. Now onward to the Linux 7.4 merge window with a lot of awesome features expected for Linux 7.4. With Linux 7.3 out on-schedule, Linux 7.4 stands chances of being released prior to the end of December. So Linux 7.4 could end up being this year's Long Term Support (LTS) version or we'll see if Greg KH plays it safe and ends up declaring v7.3 as this year's LTS kernel.