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Linux Kernel 4.7 Officially Released (iu.edu)

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: The Linux 4.7 kernel made its official debut today with Linus Torvalds announcing, "after a slight delay due to my travels, I'm back, and 4.7 is out. Despite it being two weeks since rc7, the final patch wasn't all that big, and much of it is trivial one- and few-liners." Linux 4.7 ships with open-source AMD Polaris (RX 480) support, Intel Kabylake graphics improvements, new ARM platform/board support, Xbox One Elite Controller support, and a variety of other new features.
Slashdot reader prisoninmate quotes a report from Softpedia: The biggest new features of Linux kernel 4.7 are support for the recently announced Radeon RX 480 GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) from AMD, which, of course, has been implemented directly into the AMDGPU video driver, a brand-new security module, called LoadPin, that makes sure the modules loaded by the kernel all originate from the same file system, and support for generating virtual USB Device Controllers in USB/IP. Furthermore, Linux kernel 4.7 is the first one to ensure the production-ready status of the sync_file fencing mechanism used in the Android mobile operating system, allow Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) programs to attach to tracepoints, as well as to introduce the long-anticipated "schedutil" frequency governor to the cpufreq dynamic frequency scaling subsystem, which promises to be faster and more accurate than existing ones.
Linus's announcement includes the shortlog, calling this release "fairly calm," though "There's a couple of network drivers that got a bit more loving."

7 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. X Box One support in linux? by Hadlock · · Score: 2

    Did I read that right? I thought XBOne controllers were limited to Windows due to some DRM/TPU/Trusted computing thing.
     
    Does that mean the linux powered Steam Box may someday have an upgrade path to support the XBOne controller?

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
    1. Re:X Box One support in linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not that they're limited. It's that Microsoft said that they weren't going to backport the drivers to earlier versions of Windows. Purely a driver decision, not DRM

  2. Re:Debbie Wasserman-Schultz by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    Such as...????

    Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.

    I assume that your ignorance of him and his contribution to technology, computing and the Internet means that you're just a /pol jerk here to troll. Fek off ya buftie coont.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Re:sponsored by DRM by guruevi · · Score: 4, Informative

    DRM in Linux was an acronym before Windows and the MPAA started controlling what you can and can't see on your computer.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  4. 2.6 works just fine! by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is change for the sake of change.

    I expect all the changes backported into 2.6 as I do not want to use a kernel designed for teenagers and throw out perfectly good working computers and learn something new all over again

    1. Re: 2.6 works just fine! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You should probably stop using computers

  5. Re: sponsored by DRM by geantvert · · Score: 4, Informative

    The acronym DRM (direct rendering management) first appeared in the Linux Kernel in 1999.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      DRM (digital rights management) is more difficult to trace back because it is a generic term and not a specific technology.

    Here are the number of references by Google Scholar for "Digital Rights Management" DRM

    https://scholar.google.fr/scho...

    1999 = 17
    2000 = 43
    2001 = 205
    2002 = 378
    2003 = 740 ...
    2010 = 1610

    So in 1999, the terminology DRM (digital rights management) existed but was not mainstream. This is consistent with my own memory. At the time I first saw DRM (digital rights management), I already knew about the Linux DRM for a few years.