$ The best sources for Linux kernel news

How to follow Linux kernel development without reading the mailing lists: release feeds, merge window coverage, longterm kernels, and which sources to combine.

How kernel development works

A new mainline kernel is released roughly every nine to ten weeks. Each cycle starts with a two-week merge window, in which new features are merged, followed by weekly release candidates that only fix bugs. Most news about a coming kernel therefore appears during the merge window, weeks before the release itself.

Between mainline releases, the stable team publishes point releases with fixes, and one kernel per year becomes a longterm (LTS) kernel that receives fixes for several years. Distributions usually build on one of these and add their own patches.

Release feeds

kernel.org lists every mainline, stable and longterm release, and its feed is the most reliable way to know that a new version exists. It is a list of version numbers, not an explanation, so pair it with a source that tells you what changed.

Explanations and merge window coverage

LWN.net publishes detailed articles on kernel development, including summaries of each merge window and coverage of discussions before features land. Some articles are for subscribers first and become free after a week. Phoronix reports quickly on new features as they are merged, with a focus on hardware support, drivers and performance. KernelNewbies keeps a readable changelog for each release that is a good reference once a version is out.

Primary sources

The kernel mailing lists are archived at lore.kernel.org and are where decisions are actually made. They are far too busy to read in full, but a search for a specific maintainer, subsystem or topic is a good way to follow one thread closely. Linux Doctor uses such a search to track what Linus Torvalds writes about AI tools on the kernel list.

Which kernel should you follow?

If you use the kernel your distribution ships, its own news page and security advisories matter more than mainline news, because your distribution decides which version and which fixes you get. Mainline news is most useful if you run a rolling distribution, build your own kernels, need support for new hardware, or want to know what will reach your distribution in the coming months.

How to combine them

A practical setup is the kernel.org release feed, one explanatory source such as LWN.net, and one fast news site such as Phoronix. Read the merge window summaries to know what is coming, and the changelog of a release before you upgrade to it.

If you would rather not check these pages every day, Linux Doctor sends a free daily email with the new items from these sources and publishes the same list on the latest checkup page.

All sources mentioned

LWN.net

In-depth Linux and free-software reporting, with the best kernel development coverage around.

Linux Kernel Releases

Every stable, longterm and mainline kernel release as it lands on kernel.org.

Phoronix

Linux hardware and open-source news: GPU drivers, Mesa, kernel features and benchmarks.

Linus Torvalds on AI (LKML)

Linus Torvalds' own Linux kernel mailing-list posts (lore.kernel.org) that mention LLMs, AI tools, AI slop or AI code review such as Sashiko. Keyword search, so the odd post only touches AI in passing.

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