Linus Torvalds officially announced the stable release of Linux kernel 6.15 on May 25, 2025.This release marks a major milestone in open source software, with groundbreaking integration of the Rust language, significant performance improvements, and a broad expansion of hardware support.
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This release introduces the first Direct Rendering Manager written in Rust, delivers impressive performance improvements to exFAT , and implements controversial but innovative subsystems that reshape the kernel architecture. Linux 6.15 also lays the foundation for NOVA, NVIDIA's next-generation open-source graphics driver, which is written entirely in Rust.
This marks the first Direct Rendering Manager driver written in Rust to be integrated into the mainline kernel, representing a paradigm shift towards memory-safe kernel development. The NOVA driver targets RTX 2000 “Turing” series graphics cards and above, acting as a modern successor to the existing Nouveau driver .
Linux 6.15 introduces zero-copy receive (zcrx) via io_uring, a revolutionary networking feature that eliminates the overhead of copying data from the kernel to user memory.
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This implementation allows network packet data to be transferred directly into userspace memory , without traditional alignment requirements or complex mmap()/munmap() operations .
The function requires specific capabilities from the network card (NIC) hardware, such as header/data separation, flow steering, and RSS configuration.
The release significantly expands hardware compatibility, introducing support for the Apple Touch Bar on both Intel MacBook Pro and Apple M1/M2 models via dedicated drivers. Linux 6.15 is a significant evolutionary step, combining innovative Rust integration with proven performance optimizations across a wide range of hardware.
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Based on the above, we can say that Linux 6.15 marks a new era for the operating system kernel, as it combines innovation with stability. The integration of Rust not only offers increased security in memory management, but also paves the way for more reliable and maintainable code in the kernel. At the same time, with features such as zero-copy receive and official support for modern hardware , it becomes clear that the kernel is evolving to meet both the performance needs of users and professional developers.
Source: cybersecuritynews
