14 DAY TRIAL // Today, September 15, 2016, renowned kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman informed the Linux community about the availability of the fourth maintenance update to the Linux 4.7 kernel series.
Linux kernel 4.7.4 is now the most advanced stable kernel that exists for GNU/Linux operating systems. However, looking at its appended shortlog and the diff from the previous maintenance version, namely Linux kernel 4.7.3, we can't help but notice that the changes implemented in today's release are pretty small in number. Only 59 files were changed, with 614 insertions and 282 deletions.
"I'm announcing the release of the 4.7.4 kernel. All users of the 4.7 kernel series must upgrade," says Greg Kroah-Hartman. "The updated 4.7.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.7.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git;a=summary."
What's new in Linux kernel 4.7.4
Linux kernel 4.7.4 contains a single bugfix for x86 hardware architectures, updated GPU drivers for VC4 and Radeon hardware, an improved sound stack with firewire enhancements, and multiple improvements to the OverlayFS, EXT4, UBIFS, and XFS filesystems. The networking stack was updated as well, but only to patch a few issues with the SunRPC protocol.
If you're curious to know what exactly has been changed in Linux kernel 4.7.4, we recommend checking out the links above and, in the meantime, verify the official software repositories for the updated version, because it already landed in Solus, and it's coming soon to Arch Linux users too. OS vendors and maintainers are encouraged to download the sources of Linux kernel 4.7.4 right now via the kernel.org website, or via ours.