The latest release of the Linux kernel, version 6.14, has been released slightly later than planned. This version contains the controversial functionality to write future drivers in Rust.
The release of the Linux kernel v6.14 was delayed by one day due to the ‘personal incompetence’ of Linux guru Linus Torvalds. Instead of being released last Sunday, it appeared yesterday, Monday, March 24, 2025, despite the fact that the release date had already been announced a weekend earlier.
More important than this delayed release is the new functionality that v6.14 of the Linux kernel brings. One important new feature is that more options have been added to write drivers in Rust soon. These features have recently been the subject of a heated debate between supporters and opponents of more Rust-based drivers, instead of sticking to traditional C/C++ for the open-source OS.
Read more: Linux developers argue over Rust in kernel
Other new features
Other new features in the Linux kernel v6.14 are support for the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile processor and a solution for the GhostWrite vulnerability found in some RISC-V processors from Alibaba’s subsidiary T-Head Semiconductors.
In addition, work on the NTSYNC driver has been completed in this release. This means that the WINE emulator runs Windows code better on Linux, which is intended to be particularly beneficial for Windows-based games.
In his post, Torvalds also provided an update on the work on the upcoming iteration of the Linux kernel, version 6.15. He believes this version will be more challenging and expects the mountain of pull requests to generate a lot of work.