The father of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds, announced that the stable Linux 7.1 kernel has been released and will undergo integration testing by major distributions before being rolled out to end users through system updates. Users of some distributions, such as those on the stable channel of Debian, may not receive this version update for an extended period or may even skip it entirely. Meanwhile, distributions with faster update cycles, like Fedora, are expected to offer the 7.1 kernel update soon. The Linux 7.1 kernel introduces a brand-new NTFS driver, providing full write support for the first time, with performance improvements ranging from 35% to 110%. The mounting speed for large-capacity hard drives has increased up to four times. Additionally, support for the Intel 486 processor, which has a 37-year history, has been removed to streamline the codebase. Furthermore, this version resolves the persistent two-year audio playback issue on the Steam Deck OLED handheld console in the Linux upstream kernel.