Linux 7.3 reached stable mainline release on October 18, 2026, according to Next.ink and Frandroid. Its networking work included changes to BIG TCP in VXLAN and Geneve UDP tunnels and to MPTCP under extreme memory pressure, in a development-cycle account from Phoronix.
Networking changes span tunnels, MPTCP and drivers
Phoronix published its account on August 20, before the stable release, describing networking updates merged during Linux 7.3’s development. It reported BIG TCP support in UDP tunnels using VXLAN and Geneve. It also described improved handling of MPTCP under extreme memory pressure. MPTCP, or Multipath TCP, is a TCP extension for connections that use multiple network paths; the reported change targets its behavior when memory is scarce. Phoronix’s report also listed initial CXL support for AMD/Solarflare NICs, initial Intel iXD driver infrastructure, continued Wi-Fi Multi-Link Operation work, and updates involving the Morse Micro mm81x, NXPWIFI, and MediaTek MT76 support for MT7928 and MT7925 NAN.
Kicinski’s estimate concerns networking patches
In that report, Phoronix attributed to Linux networking maintainer Jakub Kicinski a quick count of 632 merged net patches and 648 merged net-next patches. Kicinski estimated that one-third to one-half of the net-next patches appeared to be low-priority AI-driven fixes, cleanups or clarifications. He described maintainers as overwhelmed and said reviews using large language models could not resolve every issue. Phoronix also reported that Meta provided budget and access for reviews using multiple frontier models.
Kicinski’s estimate was about the net-next networking stream, not a kernel-wide count of AI-written code. The two patch totals refer to separate streams and remain separate counts.
An upstream release does not set every distro’s schedule
The stable mainline release and a Linux distribution’s package rollout are separate steps. Each distribution follows its own packaging and update schedule, so October 18 is the upstream release date, not a universal date for users to receive the kernel. NeoTeo previously covered Ubuntu 26.10’s Linux 7.3 release candidate, a distribution-side example of the pre-release stage.
