The experimental label has finally been removed from Rust in the Linux kernel. That's right, Rust is real, and it's not leaving the kernel.

Of course, this doesn't mean that Rust is all over the kernel. Instead, Rust is mostly used for writing new device drivers, such as those for GPUs, network, and storage drivers.

Rust taking the next step in the kernel isn't the only bit of newness in the kernel. We also get things like BPF-based filtering for io_uring operations; the introduction of NULLFS, which serves as a secure and efficient "true root" for the Virtual File System (VFS) hierarchy; simplified preemption handling; performance optimizations for AMD EPYC; initial hardware enablement for upcoming AMD Radeon GPUs, and much more.

Although some claim that the big news for this release is mostly about the number, Michael Larabel from Phoronix points out "...a variety of performance optimizations showing some very nice performance wins for at least some workloads and hardware." Phoronix has a full list of the additions and enhancements that come along with kernel 7.0.

Any performance optimizations for the Linux kernel are good news.

At the same time, Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux) said of AI in use for kernel 7.0, "I suspect it's a lot of AI tool use that will keep finding corner cases for us for a while, so this may be the 'new normal' at least for a while. Only time will tell."

So, there you have it, Rust is here to stay, and AI usage is now deemed a-okay.