Linus Torvalds Announces First Linux Kernel 7.3 Release Candidate

posted by Marius Nestor on Aug 30, 2026,
updated Sep 03, 2026

Two weeks have passed since the release of Linux kernel 7.2 and the opening of the merge window for Linux kernel 7.3 for contributors to submit their patches, which means that it’s now time to test-drive the Release Candidate (RC) versions during the next couple of months, every Sunday afternoon.

As expected, during this two-week merge window, Linux 7.3 received many new features and improvements. Some notable ones include Apple Silicon support for the Thunderbolt driver, Intel Directed Package Thermal Interrupt support for the thermal throttling driver for Intel CPUs, and support for Apple M3 processors.

Read on

Update (by Roy)

From LWN and Torvalds:

• Kernel prepatch 7.3-rc1

  Linus has released 7.3-rc1 and closed the merge window for this release. ""Nothing really stands out - except for the fact that it's big. It's not the biggest rc1 we've ever had, but it's certainly up there, at least in number of commits."" He pulled 15,267 commits during this merge window, making it the second busiest ever; only 6.7 has exceeded it.

• Linux 7.3-rc1

  Two weeks have passed, it's Sunday afternoon, and the merge window has closed.
  
  
  Nothing really stands out - except for the fact that it's big. It's
  not the biggest rc1 we've ever had, but it's certainly up there, at
  least in number of commits.
  
  
  And I don't think that surprises anybody any more. It's all the same
  pattern we've been seeing for a while now.
  
  
  It's also big as an actual diff, and the reason for *that* is not
  surprising either: this is yet another one of those releases with a
  big AMD GPU register dump. This time it's the AMD DCN6 register
  headers. They're huge. As usual. That's what you get when you dump all
  the hardware definitions as C header #defines. There's also the
  accompanying code for the new gen. All in all, that AMD GPU code and
  header dump accounts for about a third of the whole rc1 patch.
  
  
  But if you just mask out that big chunk, things look pretty normal,
  and this merge window didn't feel that different from most of them
  despite being large. I made it unnecessarily hard for myself by being
  a grade A nincompoop and doing a system upgrade in the middle, and
  then having to chase down an issue that caused, but that was entirely
  on me. I knew I shouldn't have done it, but I just naively went
  "nothing will go wrong". And hey, it was all good in the end, I just
  made this merge window harder for myself than I should have.
  
  
  Let's hope the rest of this release will go smoothly. And be small and
  uneventful. But who am I kidding? It almost certainly won't be small,
  but I can always hope.
  
  
                  Linus
  
  
  

Neowin:

• Linux 7.3-rc1 arrives, clocking in at a total of 40.98 million lines

  The first release candidate is a big one with new AMD code and changes making up a third of the entire update.

One more:

• Linux Kernel 7.3 RC1 is Officially Released: Here's What's New

  In the Linux 7.3-rc1 release announcement mail, Linus noted that Linux Kernel 7.3 RC1 is a remarkably large release candidate in terms of commit count and the actual code diff, even if it follows familiar development patterns.

AMD focus:

• Linux 7.3-rc1 is huge due to new AMD code [Ed: Does anyone check it? If slop, not even AMD checks it.]

  Linus Torvalds (photo) has released Linux 7.3-rc1. This closes the merge window for the next version of the Linux kernel. The first release candidate is relatively large, though Torvalds sees it primarily as a continuation of a trend that has been evident for some time.

  According to Torvalds, Linux 7.3-rc1 ranks among the larger first release candidates in terms of the number of commits. However, no single change clearly stands out in terms of content. The size of the actual patch is also substantial, but there is a specific reason for that.

• AMD Starts "Zen 6" Desktop Enablement in Linux 7.3

  AMD's upcoming "Zen 6" desktop processors are moving closer to release as the company begins Linux kernel support in the latest version 7.3. According to Phoronix, AMD has updated the Host System Management Port (HSMP) kernel module, adding protocol version 7, which is used by the Zen 6 Family 1Ah Model 80H processors. Additionally, there are new AMD PMF platform driver features for these processors, likely referring to the "Zen 6" desktop "Olympic Ridge" processors. The AMD PMF driver now also offers device metrics through a new ioctl interface.

Bloat by slop:

• Linux 7.3-rc1 is a huge release, and now we know just how big these releases can get

  We've only just received Linux 7.2 on our PCs, but the world of open-source software doesn't sit still for long. Linux 7.3 is ready for testing, with the first public test build (known as a 'release candidate' in Linux terms) now available for us all to try.

  Over the span of 2026, Linus Torvalds has stated that the release candidates have grown due to the rise in AI bug-finders and fixers, but he has never explicitly stated how large these candidates are. Well, now we have a good idea of their size, and...yeah, they're big.