I'm still a newbie when it comes to Linux. It hasn't even been a year since I moved from Windows, but I enjoy Linux so much that I love writing about it. So it's really easy for me to forget that when Linux (you know, the Linux) gets an update, it's not rolled out on a long red carpet with tons of advertising and flashy videos. Instead, it's Linus Torvalds creating a post on a website that looks like it's from the early 2000s, where he talks about what's going on in his personal life among the changenotes. Honestly, I prefer things this way.

Anyway, the point is that Linus has taken to the Linux Kernel Mailing List to announce the release of Linux version 6.19. And while there's a ton to go through here, there is one standout feature that will appeal to people running older AMD GPUs.

Linux 6.19 is now available for everyone from February 8th

A date that means nothing else for Linux fans

As spotted by OMG Ubuntu, Linus took to the LKML to announce that 6.19 is now fully released. He spends the other half of the post discussing the Superbowl which happened on the same day, which Linus describes as "the latest batch of televised commercials." I mean, he's not wrong, really.

The big star of the update is the default support for the AMDGPU kernel driver for some older AMD Radeon HD cards, which Phoronix notes has been defaulting to the Radeon DRM drivers for "the past 2+ decades." Phoronix gave the 6.19 update an early spin while it was in testing, and they noted that their Radeon HD 7950 got a ~30% boost using the new drivers, which sounds amazing for a GPU that's 14 years old now.

If you're not interested in that, Linux 6.19 still has a few tricks up its sleeves. For instance, we're seeing the release of the DRM Color Pipeline API, which will let people use hardware-accelerated HDR via color-processing hardware instead of making the GPU shaders do it. It's still a work in progress, and won't work with every card, but it's a step in the right direction.

Also, if you like your handheld consoles to run Linux, you're in luck. This new version adds mainline kernel support for the Asus ROG Ally, and also lets you adjust the hardware controls. Plus, if you install a Linux distro on the Steam Deck, it should now read the temperature sensors without any additional tweaks.

You can grab Linux 6.19 from The Linux Kernel Archives, but you'll likely have a better time waiting for your distro of choice to adopt it and roll it out.