- Linux 6.19 has just been released and Torvalds has confirmed that the next one will be 7.0
- “I almost ran out of fingers and toes again,” referring to finishing at x.19
- The latest big release (and the first of 2026) came at the same time as the Super Bowl.
Linus Torvalds has confirmed that the next Linux kernel will be version 7.0 after the release of 6.19, and it hasn’t come as a surprise to those who know that Torvalds avoids version numbers that he can’t count on his fingers and toes: a cheerful internal naming convention that keeps version numbers below x.19.
Versions 3, 5, and 6 ended with x.19 before receiving their updates, and version 4 was notable for reaching version x.20.
Version 7.0 is still some distance away, but version 6.19 has just arrived, and with it a series of improvements.
Linux 6.19 is here, Linux 7.0 will be next
“There were no big surprises last week, so 6.19 went as expected, just as America prepares to come to a grinding halt today watching the latest batch of televised commercials,” Torvalds wrote, hinting at the weekend’s Super Bowl.
“But for anyone outside the United States, maybe trying the newer core is an option?” he added.
As always, Linux 7.0 is not likely to be more important than any other update. It will likely include a combination of performance improvements, hardware support updates, and other improvements.
Still, version 6.19 brings many welcome updates as the first major release of 2026. For example, the update adds better support for AMD GPUs and older Intel platforms.
Looking ahead, Linux 7.0 will likely form the basis of popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu 26.04.
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