Just a few days after the release of Linux 4.18, Linux Kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced the immediate availability of the first maintenance update, Linux Kernel 4.18.1.
Linux Kernel 4.18 was released on August 12, 2018, positioning itself as the most advanced kernel for Linux operating systems. The first maintenance update, Linux 4.18.1, is now available, marking Linux Kernel 4.18 stable and ready for mass deployment.
Now, it is recommended that the developers of the different Linux distributions adopt the latest Linux Kernel 4.18 update in their operating systems since in addition to bringing many new features it comes with a wide variety of improvements, updated drivers and better hardware support.
Best Features of Linux Kernel 4.18 Series
As we mentioned before, the Linux Kernel 4.18 series comes with many new features, among which we can mention protections against Spectre variants 1 and 2 for the 32-bit architecture , as well as protection against Spectre variant 4 for the ARM64 and ARMv8 architectures.
Linux Kernel 4.18.1 brings runtime compilation for eBPF programs on 32-bit architectures, improved support for the F2FS file system, official support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 mobile processor, and improved support for USB-C and USB 3.2 connections.
Initial support for the upcoming Radeon Vega 20 graphics cards is now available in Linux Kernel 4.18, along with numerous updated drivers and improvements to the sound and networking systems. In total, Linux Kernel 4.18.1 contains 74 file changes, 2211 insertions, and 299 deletions . It is recommended to update as soon as possible using the official kernel.org website.