Finland-American software engineer Linus Torvalds, the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel (iconic free and open-source operating system), has confirmed that the next stage will be version 7.0 following the release of 6.19. Versions 3, 5 and 6 all ended with x.19 before getting their upgrades, with version 4 standing out for hitting version x.20.
Version 7.0 is still some way off just yet, but version 6.19 has just landed, and with it a series of improvements.
“No big surprises anywhere last week, so 6.19 is out as expected – just as the US prepares to come to a complete standstill later today, watching the latest batch of televised commercials. But for anybody outside the US, maybe taking the newest kernel out for a spin instead is an option?” Linus Torvalds wrote, hinting at the latest Super Bowl event.
As ever, Linux 7.0 isn’t likely to be any more significant than any other upgrade. It’s likely to include a mix of performance improvements, hardware support updates and other enhancements.
However, version 6.19 brings plenty of welcome upgrades as the first major release of 2026. For example, the update adds better support for older AMD GPUs and Intel platforms.
Looking ahead, Linux 7.0 will likely go on to form the basis of popular Linux distros like Ubuntu 26.04.
Talking about Linux kernel versions’ numbering, things became more predictable with the 3.x series, which also saw the release of 19 kernels before transitioning to 4.0.
“Linus Torvalds had some fun along the way, dubbing version 3.11 Linux for Workgroups, a reference to the name Microsoft gave Windows 3.11. He later pondered using version 4.0 as a special release dedicated to cleaning up bugs,” reported The Register.
The Finnish-American software engineer ended up releasing 20 versions of the 4.x kernel series, with chat on the Linux kernel mailing list ending up including mention of version 4.21, before Linus Torvalds decided to rename the next release version 5.0 because he allegedly ran out of fingers and toes to count on.
Often terming the version numbers “essentially meaningless,” he remarked, “an x.0 release is no more significant than any other, and usually less important than whichever release kernel maintainers decide will receive long-term support.”