Linux 7.3 ships with 18,765 commits and 807 first-time kernel contributors

What is in the release

LWN's summary of Linux 7.3, released on October 18, 2026, is built around the volume: 18,765 non-merge commits from 3,021 developers, 807 of them first-time kernel contributors.

The notable changes it lists:

• binfmt_misc: significant extensions to the executable-format handler.
• Group scheduling: work aimed at performance on large systems.
• failfs: a new filesystem that fails every operation, useful for testing error paths.
• fchroot(): a new system call.
• BPF: global per-CPU data for BPF programs.
• sched_ext: the subscheduler feature is now complete, giving BPF-based custom schedulers a full hierarchy.
• Virtual machines: working-set tracking, which helps hosts judge how much memory a guest really uses.
• ntfs3: support for alternative data streams.
• SMB server: a long list of improvements.

The most-discussed SMB item came with a correction

The SMB entry drew a commenter who had moved from Time Machine to borg, waiting on opt-in Apple Time Machine support in the in-kernel server. The comment added that it "still sucks that it has to be reverse-engineered." Another commenter checked the patch and disagreed:

"It doesn’t have to be reverse engineered. Apple publishes the source of its SMB client licensed as BSD-4 on GitHub." — a commenter who read the patch and found no mention of reverse engineering

Outside the kernel crowd, the thread's insider note was about Wi-Fi:

"which is the first kernel driver to use the new Wi-Fi HaLow (s1g/900MHz Wi-Fi) support." — wryun, who disclosed working for Morse

On failfs, a principal infrastructure engineer who started as a sysadmin at an ISP gave the short answer: it "helps prevent chroot escapes", which fits the new fchroot() beside it.

Samba already covers the Time Machine case: a TrueNAS Scale user says it has worked there for years through one checkbox on an SMB share. The new ksmbd support matters mainly to people who want the in-kernel server, and with the 7.4 merge window already open, anything else you want has days, not weeks.