#pragma keywords Linux, Kernel, Operative System, Linus Torvalds, Open Source, drivers
#pragma description Summary of the changes and new features merged in the Linux Kernel during the 2.5.x, 2.6.x, 3.x and 4.x development cycles
This is a list of links to every changelog.
= 5.x =
 * [[Linux_5.17]] Released Sun, 20 Mar 2022 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_5.16]] Released Sun, 9 Jan 2022 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_5.15]] Released Sun, 31 Oct 2021 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.14]] Released Sun, 29 Aug 2021 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.13]] Released Sun, 27 June 2021 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.12]] Released Sun, 25 Apr 2021 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_5.11]] Released Sun, 14 Feb 2021 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.10]] Released Sun, 13 December 2020 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.9]] Released Sun, 11 October 2020 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_5.8]] Released Sun, 2 August 2020 (64 days)
 * [[Linux_5.7]] Released Sun, 31 May 2020 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.6]] Released Sun, 29 March 2020 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.5]] Released Sun, 26 January 2020 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.4]] Released Sun, 24 Nov 2019 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_5.3]] Released Sun, 15 September 2019 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_5.2]] Released Sun, 7 July 2019 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.1]] Released Sun, 5 May 2019 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_5.0]] Released Sun, 3 March 2019 (70 days)

= 4.x =
 * [[Linux_4.20]] Released 23 December, 2018 (62 days)
 * [[Linux_4.19]] Released 22 October, 2018 (71 days)
 * [[Linux_4.18]] Released 12 August, 2018 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.17]] Released 3 Jun, 2018 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_4.16]] Released 1 Apr, 2018 (73 days)
 * [[Linux_4.15]] Released 18 January, 2018 (77 days)
 * [[Linux_4.14]] Released 12 November, 2017 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.13]] Released 3 September, 2017 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_4.12]] Released 2 July, 2017 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_4.11]] Released 30 April, 2017 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.10]] Released 19 February, 2017 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.9]] Released 11 December, 2016 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.8]] Released 2 October, 2016 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.7]] Released 24 July, 2016 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.6]] Released 15 May, 2016 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_4.5]] Released 13 March, 2016 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_4.4]] Released 10 January, 2016 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.3]] Released 1 November, 2015 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_4.2]] Released 30 August, 2015 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.1]] Released 21 June, 2015 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_4.0]] Released 12 April, 2015 (63 days)

= 3.x =
 * [[Linux_3.19]] Released 8 February, 2015 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_3.18]] Released 7 December, 2014 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_3.17]] Released 5 October, 2014 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_3.16]] Released 3 August, 2014 (56 days)
 * [[Linux_3.15]] Released 8 June, 2014 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_3.14]] Released 30 March, 2014 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_3.13]] Released 19 January, 2014 (78 days)
 * [[Linux_3.12]] Released 2 November, 2013 (61 days)
 * [[Linux_3.11]] Released 2 September, 2013 (64 days)
 * [[Linux_3.10]] Released 30 June, 2013 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_3.9]] Released 28 April, 2013 (69 days)
 * [[Linux_3.8]] Released 18 February, 2013 70 ( days)
 * [[Linux_3.7]] Released 10 December 2012 (71 days)
 * [[Linux_3.6]] Released 30 September, 2012 (71 days)
 * [[Linux_3.5]] Released 21 July, 2012 (62 days)
 * [[Linux_3.4]] Released 20 May, 2012 (63 days)
 * [[Linux_3.3]] Released 18 March, 2012 (74 days)
 * [[Linux_3.2]] Released 4 January, 2012 (72 days)
 * [[Linux_3.1]] Released 24 October, 2011 (95 days)
 * [[Linux_3.0]] Released 21 July, 2011 (64 days)

= 2.6.x =
 * [[Linux_2_6_39|Linux 2.6.39]] Released 18 May, 2011 (65 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_38|Linux 2.6.38]] Released 14 March, 2011 (69 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_37|Linux 2.6.37]] Released 4 January, 2011 (76 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_36|Linux 2.6.36]] Released 20 October, 2010 (80 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_35|Linux 2.6.35]] Released 1 August, 2010 (76 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_34|Linux 2.6.34]] Released 16 May, 2010 (81 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_33|Linux 2.6.33]] Released 24 February, 2010 (83 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_32|Linux 2.6.32]] Released 3 December, 2009 (84 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_31|Linux 2.6.31]] Released 9 September, 2009 (92 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_30|Linux 2.6.30]] Released 9 June, 2009 (77 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_29|Linux 2.6.29]] Released 24 March, 2009 (89 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_28|Linux 2.6.28]] Released 25 December, 2008 (77 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_27|Linux 2.6.27]] Released 9 October, 2008 (88 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_26|Linux 2.6.26]] Released 13 July, 2008 (87 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_25|Linux 2.6.25]] Released 17 April, 2008 (84 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_24|Linux 2.6.24]] Released 24 January, 2008 (107 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_23|Linux 2.6.23]] Released 9 October, 2007 (93 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_22|Linux 2.6.22]] Released 8 July, 2007 (73 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_21|Linux 2.6.21]] Released 26 April, 2007 (80 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_20|Linux 2.6.20]] Released 5 February, 2007 (68 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_19|Linux 2.6.19]] Released 29 November, 2006 (70 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_18|Linux 2.6.18]] Released 20 September, 2006 (95 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_17|Linux 2.6.17]] Released 17 June, 2006 (88 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_16|Linux 2.6.16]] Released 20 March, 2006 (76 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_15|Linux 2.6.15]] Released 3 January, 2006 (68 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_14|Linux 2.6.14]] Released 27 October, 2005 (59 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_13|Linux 2.6.13]] Released 29 August, 2005 (73 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_12|Linux 2.6.12]] Released 17 June, 2005 (107 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_11|Linux 2.6.11]] Released 2 March, 2005 (68 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_10|Linux 2.6.10]] Released 24 December, 2004 (66 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_9|Linux 2.6.9]] Released 19 October, 2004 (66 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_8|Linux 2.6.8]] Released 14 August, 2004 (59 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_7|Linux 2.6.7]] Released 16 June, 2004 (37 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_6|Linux 2.6.6]] Released 10 May, 2004 (36 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_5|Linux 2.6.5]] Released 4 April, 2004 (24 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_4|Linux 2.6.4]] Released 11 March, 2004 (22 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_3|Linux 2.6.3]] Released 18 February, 2004 (14 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_2|Linux 2.6.2]] Released 4 February, 2004 (26 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_1|Linux 2.6.1]] Released 9 January, 2004 (22 days)
 * [[Linux_2_6_0|Linux 2.6.0]] Released 18 December, 2003

= 2.5.x =
2.6.0-test9:

 * Libata driver architecture [[http://lwn.net/Articles/44243/|(LWN article)]]

2.6.0-test6:

 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=104344596912094&w=2|32-bit dev_t]]
 * Direct I/O support for reiserfs

2.6.0-test3:

 * [[http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/index.html|SELinux]]

2.6.0-test1:

 * [[http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/|Linux Virtual Server layer]]

2.5.75 released July 10, 2003:

 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-mm&m=104529418208788&w=2|Anticipatory Scheduler]]
 * "kblockd" kernel threads
 * "nointegrity" JFS mount option

2.5.74 released July 2, 2003:

2.5.73 released June 22, 2003:

2.5.72 released June 17, 2003:

2.5.71 released June 14, 2003:

 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=104981044405395&w=2|Switch the IDE I/O layers to taskfile]]

2.5.70 released May 27, 2003:

 * [[http://www.linux-usb.org/gadget|USB gadget support]]

2.5.69 released May 5, 2003:

 * New interrupt handling API [[http://lwn.net/Articles/29555/|(LWN article)]]
 * Runtime barrier instruction patching: Allows optimal performance on different processors without the need to ship multiple kernels

2.5.68 released April 20, 2003:

 * Merging s390 and s390x into a single architecture
 * Generation of hotplug events from kobject registration

2.5.67 released April 7, 2003:

2.5.66 released March 24, 2003:

2.5.65 released March 17, 2003:

 * [[http://www.kerneltrap.org/node.php?id=603|Desktop Interactivity Improvements]]

2.5.64 released March 5, 2003:

2.5.63 released February 24, 2003:

 * [[http://high-res-timers.sourceforge.net/|POSIX timers]]

2.5.62 released February 17, 2003:

 * [[http://lse.sourceforge.net/locking/dcache/dcache_lock.html|Avoid dcache_lock while path walking]]

2.5.61 released February 15, 2003:

2.5.60 released February 10, 2003:

 * New modversions implementation
 * 64-bit jiffies

2.5.59 released Janury 17, 2003:

 * [[http://home.arcor.de/efocht/sched/|NUMA aware scheduler extensions]]

2.5.58 released January 14, 2003:

2.5.57 released January 13, 2003:

 * [[http://www.zipworld.com.au/~akpm/linux/schedlat.html|Remove long-held locks for low scheduling latency]]

2.5.56 released January 10, 2003:

2.5.55 released January 9, 2003:

2.5.54 released January 2, 2003:

 * [[http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/|Add lm-sensors drivers for hardware health monitoring]]
 * Support for AGP 3.0

2.5.53 released December 24, 2002:

 * SYSENTER/SYSEXIT support: Systems that support the SYSENTER extension (Basically Intel Pentium-II and above, and AMD Athlons) now have a faster method of making the transition from userspace to kernelspace when a syscall is performed. Pentium Pro also has SYSENTER, but due to errata, is unusable. Need an updated glibc to use it.

2.5.52 released December 16, 2002:

2.5.51 released December 10, 2002:

 * [[http://linuxconsole.sourceforge.net/|Rewrite of the console layer]]
 * Compatibility syscall layer

2.5.50 released November 27, 2002:

2.5.49 released November 22, 2002:

2.5.48 released November 18, 2002:

 * [[http://lists.insecure.org/lists/linux-kernel/2002/Oct/6214.html|In-kernel module loader]]

2.5.47 released November 11, 2002:

 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101843329231392&w=2|Zerocopy NFS]]

2.5.46 released November 4, 2002:

 * [[http://www.xmailserver.org/linux-patches/nio-improve.html|Better I/O performance with epoll]], [[http://lwn.net/Articles/14168/|(LWN article)]]
 * Per-cpu hot & cold page lists
 * [[http://www.uclinux.org/|MMU-less processor support (ucLinux)]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101095500820185&w=2|Replace initrd by initramfs]]
 * Extended Attributes and ACLs for ext2/ext3

2.5.45 released October 31, 2002:

 * [[http://www.xs4all.nl/~zippel/lc/|New Linux configuration system: kconfig]]
 * [[http://samba.org/~jamesm/crypto/|CryptoAPI]]
 * [[ftp://ftp.linux-ipv6.org/pub/usagi/patch/ipsec/|IPSEC]]
 * [[http://www.linuxtv.org/dvb/|Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) layer]]
 * [[http://www.sistina.com/products_lvm.htm|Device mapper for Logical Volume Manager (LVM2)]]

2.5.44 released October 19, 2002:

 * New sysfs filesystem (formerly known as driverfs) [[http://lwn.net/Articles/36850/|(LWN article)]]
 * Plug'N Play Layer Rewrite
 * x86 BIOS Enhanced Disk Device (EDD) polling [[http://lwn.net/Articles/9042/|(LWN article)]]

2.5.43 released October 16, 2002:

 * [[http://www.psc.edu/general/filesys/afs/|Andrew File System (AFS) support]]
 * [[http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/|OProfile, a low-overhead profiler]]
 * [[http://lse.sourceforge.net/locking|Read-Copy Update (RCU) Mutual Exclusion]]
 * [[http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/nfsv4/|Add support for NFS v4]]
 * Remove kiobufs

2.5.42 released October 12, 2002:

 * [[http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/nfsv4/|NFS v4]] support [[https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/history/history.git/commit/?id=b59e9ac5ec332ba084b44553ab1bd47e1ac30e41|(commit)]], [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=102927937802523&w=2|(announcement)]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=103298446916066&w=2|ext2/ext3 large directory support: HTree index]]
 * [[http://us1.samba.org/samba/Linux_CIFS_client.html|Add new CIFS (Common Internet File System)]]
 * [[http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au/IA64wiki/LargeBlockDevices|Remove the 2TB block device limit]]: Block devices can now access up to 16TB on 32-bit architectures, and up to 8EB on 64-bit architectures. statfs64() syscall added: statfs() couldn't handle it.
 * Improved i2o (Intelligent Input/Ouput) layer

2.5.41 released October 7, 2002:

 * NFS direct I/O [[https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/history/history.git/commit/?id=c03e7607e0391b919d3f6ded8c98fdcddbcb20b1|(commit)]]

2.5.40 released October 1, 2002:

 * [[http://lse.sourceforge.net/numa|Parallelizing page replacement]]
 * [[http://lse.sourceforge.net/numa|NUMA topology support]]
 * [[http://www.brodo.de/cpufreq/|Add support for CPU clock/voltage scaling]]

2.5.39 released September 27, 2002:

 * New IO scheduler ("deadline")

2.5.38 released September 22, 2002:

2.5.37 released September 20, 2002:

 * [[http://users.pandora.be/bart.de.schuymer/ebtables/|Ethernet bridge tables support]]
 * Remove the global tasklist

2.5.36 released September 18, 2002:

 * Hugepage support
 * [[http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/|XFS filesystem from SGI]]

2.5.35 released September 16, 2002:

 * Serial ATA support
 * [[http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/index.html|Add User-Mode Linux (UML)]]

2.5.34 released September 9, 2002:

 * POSIX threading support for signals
 * [[http://lse.sourceforge.net/numa|discontigmem support (ia32)]]

2.5.33 released August 31, 2002:

 * TCP segmentation offload
 * [[http://www.sf.net/projects/lksctp|SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol)]]

2.5.32 released August 27, 2002:

 * [[http://people.redhat.com/drepper/nptl-design.pdf|Improved POSIX threading support]]
 * [[http://freshmeat.net/projects/linux-aio/|Asynchronous IO (aio) support]]
 * Porting all input devices over to input API
 * New MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) driver

2.5.31 released August 11, 2002:

 * Support insane number of processes
 * Disk description cleanups
 * Remove incomplete SPX network stack

2.5.30 released August 1, 2002:

 * Remove khttpd

2.5.29 released July 27, 2002:

 * Strict address space accounting
 * [[http://lsm.immunix.org/|Add Linux Security Module (LSM)]]
 * [[http://people.redhat.com/mingo/tls-patches/|Thread-Local Storage (TLS) support]]

2.5.28 released July 24, 2002:

 * Remove the "Big IRQ lock"
 * Serial driver restructure

2.5.27 released July 20, 2002:

 * [[http://surriel.com/patches/|New VM with reverse mappings]]

2.5.26 releasaed July 16, 2002:

 * Direct pagecache <-> BIO disk I/O

2.5.25 releaseed July 5, 2002:

 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=102591369418106&w=2|Faster internal kernel clock frequency]]
 * Unified naming for disk devices

2.5.24 released June 20, 2002:

2.5.23 released June 19, 2002:

 * [[http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/patches/Hotcpu/|Hotplug CPU support]]
 * [[http://web.archive.org/web/20030208091619/bazar.conectiva.com.br/~acme/patches/wip/|More complete IEEE 802.2 stack]]

2.5.22 released June 17, 2002:

2.5.21 released June 9, 2002:

2.5.20 released June 3, 2002:

2.5.19 released May 29, 2002:

2.5.18 released May 25, 2002:

 * [[http://falcon.sch.bme.hu/~seasons/linux/swsusp.html|Software suspend (to disk & RAM)]]
 * ->getattr() ->setattr() ->permission() changes

2.5.17 released May 21, 2002:

 * Move ISDN4linux to CAPI based interface
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-fsdevel&m=101586205801483&w=2|New quota system supporting plugins]]

2.5.16 released May 18, 2002:

2.5.15 released May 9, 2002:

2.5.14 released May 6, 2002:

 * Bluetooth support (no longer experimental!)
 * [[https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/history/history.git/commit/?id=f015724e4111549ab6544dd85123c094cea749e4|Support for IDE TCQ (Tagged Command Queueing)]]

2.5.13 released May 3, 2002:

2.5.12 released May 1, 2002:

 * Rewrite of the buffer layer

2.5.11 released April 29, 2002:

 * Rewrite of the framebuffer layer
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101968599501262&w=2|Fast walk dcache]]
 * [[http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/|Replace old NTFS driver with NTFS TNG driver]]

2.5.10 released April 24, 2002:

2.5.9 released April 22, 2002:

 * Smarter IRQ balancing

2.5.8 released April 14, 2002:

 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101231993430394&w=2|Radix-tree pagecache]]
 * [[http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rml/cpu-affinity|Syscall interface for CPU task affinity]]

2.5.7 released March 18, 2002:

 * [[http://sourceforge.net/projects/acpi/|ACPI (Advanced Configuration & Power Interface)]]
 * [[ftp://robur.slu.se/pub/Linux/net-development/NAPI/|NAPI network interrupt mitigation]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101531164109904&w=2|Futexes (Fast Lightweight Userspace Semaphores]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-video&m=101508220707263&w=2|Video for Linux (V4L) redesign]]
 * [[http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html|New driver API for Wireless Extensions]]

2.5.6 released March 8, 2002:

 * Unicode and large file support for smbfs
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101043315213024&w=2|HDLC (High-level Data Link Control) update]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101426108626124&w=2|per_cpu infrastructure]]
 * [[http://www-124.ibm.com/jfs/|Add JFS (Journaling FileSystem from IBM)]]
 * Killing kdev_t for block devices

2.5.5 released February 20, 2002:

 * [[http://linuxppc64.org/|New architecture: PowerPC 64-bit (ppc64)]]
 * [[http://www.x86-64.org/|New architecture: AMD 64-bit (x86-64)]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101406121032371&w=2|Pagetables in highmem support]]
 * [[http://www.alsa-project.org/|Add ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture]]

2.5.4 released February 11, 2002:

 * [[http://www-124.ibm.com/developerworks/oss/pthreads/|Support for Next Generation POSIX Threading]]
 * [[ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rml/preempt-kernel/|Add preempt kernel option]]
 * Per network protocol slabcache & sock.h
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=100942323913586&w=2|Per filesystem slabcache & fs.h]]

2.5.3 released January 30, 2002:

 * [[http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/mochel/doc/|New driver model & unified device tree]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=100173574819266&w=2|PnP BIOS driver]]
 * Generic Extended Attribute support
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101077476005939&w=2|Support reiserfs external journal]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=101121711408999&w=2|IDE layer update]]
 * [[http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0202.0/0260.html|Untangle sched.h & fs.h include dependancies]]
 * Break Configure.help into multiple files

2.5.2 released January 15, 2002:

 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=100992347220716&w=2|New kernel device structure (kdev_t)]]
 * [[http://people.redhat.com/mingo/O(1)-scheduler/|O(1) scheduler for improved scalability]]
 * [[http://marc.info/?l=linux-fsdevel&m=98307457705210&w=2|Filesystem per-process namespaces, late-boot cleanups]]
 * [[http://www.linux-usb.org/usb2.html|Initial support for USB 2.0]]

2.5.1 December 17, 2001:

 * VFS changes: Now it is possible to atomically move a subtree to another place, "mount --move olddir newdir"
 * Rewrite of the block IO (bio) layer

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 CategoryReleases