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

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On his way to Mumbai for the Open Source Summit India , Linus Torvalds announced the latest Linux kernel: 7.1 . This new version comes with a brand‑new in‑kernel, Microsoft's New Technology File System (NTFS) implementation , Intel's Flexible Return and Event Delivery (FRED) enabled by default, and a purge of aging code and hardware support, including the end of the road for 486 support.

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The new kernel arrives just months after Linux 7.0 debuted with major networking and filesystem changes. Version 7.1 continues the trend of tightening Linux's hardware focus while improving performance and security.

The headline change for most people in Linux 7.1 is its new native NTFS driver. Many Linux users, whether they like it or not, must deal with Microsoft file systems, and that's where this driver comes in. It replaces both the old, dusty NTFS‑3G FUSE driver in many setups and the Paragon‑contributed NTFS3 kernel driver that has had a bumpy history with data‑corruption reports. Indeed, Torvalds himself calls this new driver an "NTFS resurrection ."

The new code is built on Linux's contemporary filesystem infrastructure, using iomap and folios instead of older buffer_head‑centric paths. The new and improved NTFS support was designed from the outset for robust read‑write support, better error handling, and more predictable behavior under heavy parallel I/O.

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According to the new NTFS developer, Namjae Jeon, while the new NTFS driver shows only modest single‑threaded write gains, its improvements are far more impressive when multiple threads pound on the same NTFS volume. There, multi‑threaded writes can be 35–110% faster than earlier drivers , while mounting a 4TB NTFS volume is reported to be roughly four times faster.

For users who regularly shuttle data between Windows and Linux via external drives or dual‑boot setups, this change should make NTFS feel much more like a first‑class citizen on Linux desktops and laptops.

On the CPU side, Linux 7.1 flips the switch on Intel's FRED, enabling it by default on supported Intel platforms. FRED is a new hardware mechanism for handling entries and exits in privileged modes, such as interrupts, exceptions, and system calls. FRED's goal is to simplify control‑flow transitions and reduce the reliance on legacy entry stacks that have grown increasingly complex and insecure over the years.