Jon Hicks/Stone/Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Linux 6.17 features significant CPU improvements. It addresses the eternal Spectre and Meltdown security holes. The next release, 6.18, will be a long-term support kernel. Linus Torvalds is the first to admit that there have been more exciting Linux kernel releases. He announced the release of the 6.17 Linux kernel by writing, "It's not exciting, which is all good. I think the biggest patch in there is some locking fixes for some Bluetooth races that could cause use-after-free situations. Whee -- that's about as exciting as it gets." Also: 5 of my favorite Linux distros ready to use out of the box - no setup required With that said, 6.17 does come with some notable performance boosts, expanded hardware support, and a medley of improvements aimed at server, desktop, and embedded systems. The most important of these improvements is for the AMD Ryzen chip. By delivering improved hardware feedback scheduling for Ryzen chips via the new Hardware Feedback Interface (HFI) driver, hybrid-core laptops and desktops will be more intelligent in handling workload distribution with SmartMux support. The feature works by auto-switching between integrated and discrete graphics based on your workload. So, depending on what you're doing, it can either save power or boost your performance as needed. Also: Is this Arch distro the 'ultimate' Linux? That depends on your GPU Meanwhile, Intel-powered computers are gaining better graphics support. That's especially true for the forthcoming Xe3 (Panther Lake) systems. You'll see these chips in Core Ultra Series 3 laptops by the holidays. Early tests indicated that Linux desktop gamers can expect significant speed improvements in some of their favorite games. Linux 6.17 also comes with Error Detection and Correction (EDAC) support for Intel's Bartlett Lake processors. EDAC is the mechanism used to spot, report, and correct memory errors. Not every processor will see improvements with 6.17. Some proposed RISC-V patches ticked off Torvalds because they were both late and poorly written. He described them as: "Garbage. And by 'garbage,' I really mean it. This is stuff that nobody should ever send me, never mind late in a merge window." Better luck next release, folks. This release also revamps CPU vulnerability management by unifying kernel command-line mitigation options for ancient security holes, such as Spectre and Meltdown. Despite their age, these security problems persist. The new kernel makes it easier for server administrators to streamline performance tweaks and security controls. On the storage front, Btrfs gains experimental large-folio support for efficient memory access. In the same release, the most popular Linux file system, Ext4, introduces buffered I/O control. Two new system calls, file_getattr() and file_setattr(), are included for advanced inode file system attribute management. Also: I install these 11 apps on every new Linux system, and you should, too - here's why For networking, the enhancements include new gateway routing for the Management Component Transport Protocol (MCTP), expansion of the multipath TCP feature, and added support for the DualPI2 congestion control protocol. Linux 6.17 is not a long-term support (LTS) release. Users who require extended support can stick to 6.12 or wait for the anticipated 6.18 LTS milestone. Also: How much RAM does your Linux PC really need in 2025? I did the math so you don't have to Distributions such as the forthcoming Ubuntu 25.10, currently in beta, have already adopted 6.17 in their latest builds. You can expect to see cutting-edge, rolling distributions, such as Arch Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed, and Fedora Rawhide, release the 6.17 kernel in the next few days and weeks. As usual, the release opens the merge window for kernel 6.18, with dozens of pull requests queued up for review by Torvalds and the core maintainers. Since it will be an LTS release, I expect to see significant improvements in this anticipated end-of-the-year release.