14 DAY TRIAL // After announcing the end of life for the Linux 4.6 kernel series with the release of Linux kernel 4.6.7 as the last maintenance update, as well as the availability of the first point release of Linux kernel 4.7, Greg Kroah-Hartman now informs us about Linux kernel 4.4.18 LTS.
Linux kernel 4.4 is an LTS (Long Term Support) one, the latest and most advanced, currently used by many popular GNU/Linux operating systems, including Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (Trusty Tahr), and all of their derivatives, such as Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu MATE, etc., and the Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" series of distributions.
Linux kernel 4.4.18 LTS is the eighteenth maintenance release, coming only six days after the August 10 debut of Linux kernel 4.4.17 LTS. According to the appended shortlog and the diff from Linux kernel 4.4.17 LTS, this new update changes a total of 50 files, with 623 insertions and 301 deletions, which bring lots of Arch and filesystems improvements, as well as several updated drivers.
"I'm announcing the release of the 4.4.18 kernel. All users of the 4.4 kernel series must upgrade," says Greg Kroah-Hartman. "The updated 4.4.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.4.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git;a=summary."
Here's what's new in Linux kernel 4.4.18 LTS
Looking at the internal changelog, we can notice that Linux kernel 4.4.18 LTS improves support for x86, ARM, MIPS, and s390 hardware architectures, updates the networking stack with minor IPv4 and IrDA fixes, adds a couple of crypto and mm changes, updates the Intel i915, I2C, HID, networking, PNP, SCSI, and TTY drivers, and enhances support for the EXT4 and FUSE filesystems.
If you're using a kernel from the long-term supported Linux 4.4 series, we recommend that you update as soon as possible to version 4.4.18. Most of the distros mentioned above will soon release a new kernel update, so make sure that you install it immediately. OS vendors and power users can download the Linux kernel 4.4.18 LTS sources right now via our website or directly from kernel.org.