Linus Torvalds has just released a stable version of the Linux Kernel 5.19. Notably, this is the first time he has released the kernel on an Apple MacBook laptop running the AArch64 M1 chip.
Linux Kernel 5.19 introduces a number of new features and functions, adding support for LoongArch CPUs and Zen 4 CPUs in terms of new hardware, continuing to improve support for AMD RDNA 3 and Intel DG2/Alchemist, adding Intel Idle drivers for Alder Lake, initial support for Raptor Lake P graphics, support for Zstd compression firmware, and further performance improvements.
In the Linux Kernel 5.19 changelog released today, Linux Torvalds states that the contents of these changelogs were done on an Apple MacBook laptop, which successfully runs Linux on an ARM-based laptop with the help of the Asahi Linux project.
"From my personal point of view, I think one of the most interesting things is that I did the release on an ARM64 laptop (on which the logs were also written). This is something I've been personally looking forward to for a long time, and now it's finally a reality, and I'd like to highlight the Ashai team. Although ARM64 devices have been able to run Linux for a long time, it wasn't very useful until the Ashai project. This is the third time I've used Apple hardware for Linux development, having developed for Powerpc on a ppc970 device a long time ago. Now, more than a decade later, I'm doing it again on a MacBook Air, a slim laptop. But at this stage I'm not using the MacBook Air for any real work - I'm just using it for version testing, launching, and now releasing. But I'll try to migrate my work to this MacBook, and maybe I'll be able to fully embrace ARM64 in the next release."
