The latest, greatest Linux kernel has arrived and it includes a number of improvements for hardware support, performance, and security.

In a recent email to the LKML mailing list, Linus Torvalds had this to say: "But in the meantime, please do give 6.2 a testing. Maybe it's not a sexy LTS release like 6.1 ended up being, but all those regular pedestrian kernels want some test love too."

Although 6.2 might not be "sexy," it still has plenty to offer. First up are hardware improvements that include out-of-the-box support for Intel Arc graphics and Intel's On-Demand driver. As well, Skylake CPUs have gained a significant performance increase with an addition that's designed to address the Retbleed CPU vulnerability.

Linux 6.2 is also the first mainline kernel with support for Apple Silicon M1 Pro, Max, and Ultra. This particular work was upstreamed by the Asahi Linux team.

The NTFS3 driver now includes the hidedotfiles option (to properly hide hidden files when mounting Windows directories), nocase (for case-insensitive files and folders), and windows_names (which prevents renaming files and folders with names not allowed in Windows).

Support also has been added for the Sony Dualshock 4 game controllers, improved support for the OneXPlayer handheld gaming console, support for the Haban Labs Gaudi2 AI accelerator, and a number of improvements for AUSUS motherboards.

To find out more of what's gone into the 6.2 kernel, read parts 1 and 2 of the 6.2 Merge Window.