Linux Kernel 7.1 Sends Intel 486 Support to Silicon Heaven

Linux 7.1 is here to end the Intel 486 CPU era - and do some serious legacy clean up

And say hello to much better NTFS support. Linux creator Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux 7.1.

Linux kernel 7.1 sends Intel 486 support to silicon heaven

Linux kernel 7.1 is out, bringing significant changes that have been brewing for years – including the long-promised removal of support for Intel's 486 chip and its contemporaries. More than 140,000 lines of code have been chopped, with more facing deletion. Back in May 2025, we wrote that kernel 6.15 would drop 486 support, but that change was canceled at the last minute. Now it's in: in April, Penguin Emperor Linus Torvalds merged the big chan…

Linux 7.1 Release - Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures - CNX Software

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 7.1 on LKML: So it’s only Sunday morning back home, but it’s Sunday afternoon where I am right now, so I’m doing the 7.1 release at the regular time – just not in the regular timezone. This obviously means that the merge window opens tomorrow, but I’ll be in yet another timezone by then, so timing will all be a bit irregular. Normally I try to front-load the merge window and do as much as possible the first…