{
  "id": 15517773,
  "title": "The 7.3 kernel has been released",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/18/the-7-3-kernel-has-been-released",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-18T23:45:23.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "LWN",
    "slug": "lwn",
    "url": "https://lwn.net/Articles/1101143/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Linus Torvalds announced the release of the 7.3 kernel on a Sunday afternoon, as the release was not randomly delayed. The week had seen no significant events, so the final version of 7.3 was released, marking the opening of the merge window for the upcoming 7.4 version. The author, currently on a family vacation, would resume merging activities in the afternoon. The 7.3 kernel release set records in several areas, with 18,765 non-merge commits contributed by 3,021 developers, 807 of whom were new to kernel development. Key enhancements in this release include binfmt_misc extensions, group-scheduling improvements for large systems, the failfs filesystem, fchroot() system call, global per-CPU data for BPF programs, new sched_ext subscheduler feature, working-set tracking for virtual machines, alternative data-stream support for ntfs3 filesystem, and numerous SMB server improvements. For comprehensive details, refer to LWN merge-window summaries and KernelNewbies' 7.3 page.",
  "summary": "Linus Torvalds has released the 7.3 kernel, as expected. It's Sunday afternoon, and this week I somehow kept my wits together long enough to keep track of the day of the week, so the release isn't randomly delayed. Will wonders never cease? Anyway, nothing very special seems to have happened this last week, so as expected the final 7.3 is out, and thus tomorrow the merge window for 7.4 opens.…",
  "key_points": [
    "Linus Torvalds announced 7.3 kernel release on Sunday",
    "18,765 non-merge commits by 3,021 developers",
    "Key enhancements: binfmtmisc, group-scheduling, failfs"
  ],
  "editors_take": "The massive influx of new developers and record-breaking commit counts signal a broadening of the contributor base even as the project transitions into the next development cycle.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}