Linux 5.19 released – launched by Linus Torvalds of Apple Silicon MacBook

Linus Torvalds just released Linux 5.19 Stable for the latest Linux kernel. He also mentioned that this is the first time he has launched a new Linux kernel from an ARM64 laptop in the form of an Apple MacBook powered by the AArch64 Apple M1 SoC.

Linux 5.19 brings Many new features From initial LoongArch CPU support to ongoing work on updating AMD Zen 4 CPUs, continued AMD RDNA3 enabled, more work on Intel DG2/Alchemist, Intel Idle driver support for Alder Lake, Raw Raptor Lake P graphics support, Zstd ROM firmware and some great improvements in the performance.

Asahi Linux

In today’s Linux 5.19 release announcement, Linus Torvalds continued to write about using the Arm-based MacBook now under Linux thanks to the work of the Asahi Linux Project:

On a personal note, the most interesting part here is that I did the version (as I write this) on an arm64 laptop. It’s something I’ve been waiting for a long time, and it finally came true, thanks to Team Asahi. We’ve had arm64 machines around running Linux for a long time, but none of them have really been usable as a development platform yet.

It’s the third time I’ve used Apple hardware for Linux development – I did this many years ago to develop powerpc on my ppc970. Then a decade ago, when the Macbook Air was the only device that’s thin and light. And now as arm64 platform.

Not that I’ve used it for any real work, I’ve literally just been running tests and testing, and now the actual version is flagged. But I’m trying to make sure that the next time I’m traveling I can travel with this as a laptop and finally try the arm64 side as well.

More comments can be found at Release Announcement.

Linus Torvalds also noted that he would likely end up calling Linux 5.20 Linux 6.0 kernel.

see my Linux 5.19 Features Overview For a full list of the major changes in this new kernel.