Linus Torvalds released Linux kernel 6.18 bringing new hardware support, virtualization improvements, and file system updates. The biggest change is the removal of the Bcachefs file system. Then, Linux 6.18 adds KVM x86 CET virtualization support, letting virtual machines use Intel and AMD's control-flow security features. The kernel can now run as a guest on FreeBSD's Bhyve hypervisor. AMD gets several virtualization improvements including Secure AVIC support, while a new dm-pcache feature lets persistent memory speed up slower storage devices. File systems see notable updates. Btrfs gets initial support for larger block sizes, while XFS now enables online filesystem checking by default. EXT4 adds new management capabilities, and OverlayFS gains case-folding support for better compatibility. Intel USBIO drivers are now included along with support for Wildcat Lake graphics. Additionally, new Tyr and Rocket drivers, along with more AMD Versal platform drivers, have been added.

Laptops get initial haptic touchpad support, new hardware includes DualSense PlayStation controller audio jacks and Apple M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra chips. Intel's Alder Lake-S processors also gain support. In terms of performance the new release gets a boost with Sheaves, which speeds up how the kernel allocates memory. Swap handling is faster, NFS servers scale better, and UDP network performance has improved. The Rust Binder driver is now supported, and x86 systems get a new option to control microcode loading. Linux 6.18 could become the next long-term support kernel; however, that hasn't been confirmed yet. Development for Linux 6.19 starts now, with the first test version expected on December 14th.