Linux lover’s wait for Linux 5.0 is over now, Linus Torvalds released Linux 5.0 officially.

We were waiting for Linux 5.0 from beginning of this year 2019, when Linus announced for releasing in march 2019.

However, the previous version of Linux is 4.21 so it should be 4.22 but it is 5.0. So, don’t expect it is big release as number showing.

Linus Torvalds explains that: “The numbering change is not indicative of anything special. If you want to have an official reason, it’s that I ran out of fingers and toes to count on, so 4.21 became 5.0”.

Linux kernel 5.0 new Features

Not to warry, we will get numbers of thing with this release which will make you fill happy. This release has multiple bug fixes, improvement in performance, increased hardware supports, software compatibility enhanced etc.

There are some major changes and features in Linux kernel 5.0:

• Amd Radeon FreeSync display support
• NVIDIA Xavier display support
• Raspberry Pi Touchscreen support
• Btrfs file system support for swap area
• Thunderbolt security enhancement
• Power Management Improved
• Adiantum data Encryption
• Realtek R8169 driver improvement
• Logitech High resolution scrolling support
• New console font for HiDPI/retina display
• NVIDIA Turing GPUs
• Intel Icelake Gen11 Graphics
• RDA Micra RDA8810PL
• NXP i.MX8 SoC & Layerscape LX2160A

Adiantum data Encryption

Adiantum has capabilities to fast encrypt data for low-end devices and hardware. It is used in Android Go devices. Linux also upgrading file system technologies to support enhanced technologies and leverage the technology.

Now, Adiantum supports in fscrypt, which will help low-end devices to provide file system encryption with speed.

Fscrypt is high-level tool for management of Linux file systems, which is managing metadata, PAM integration, key generation, and provide interface for creating, modifying and managing encrypted directories.

Raspberry Pi Touchscreen support

This is the out of the box feature included in Linux Kernel 5.0.

Raspberry Pi introduce 7” touchscreen display officially. It is very cheap (around £60 or so) from any computer. It supports 10 fingers touch with 800 x 480 resolution.

Linux 5.0 kernel release supports for this device, where it is fully compatible and no workaround required.

Amd Radeon FreeSync display support

Fans of AMD Processor and Linux pleased to hear that AMD Radeon FreeSync support is available in Linux new kernel 5.0.

To use this advanced feature with your system you need an Radeon R5/R7/R9 200 or later (including Vega) and monitor with FreeSync support.

How to get Linux 5.0 Kernel

Linux kernel 5.0 release, so it is available to download, but not much useful till you get to know what to do with it.

The new version of Ubuntu 19.04 is coming with Linux kernel 5.0 and will support all included features. Most of the Ubuntu lovers are waiting for fully Linux 5.0 featured of Ubuntu and it will available soon on release of Ubuntu 19.04. We expecting in April-2019 for fully featured Ubuntu 19.04.

If you don’t want to wait till Ubuntu 19.04 release, you can install Linux 5.0 in your Operating System manually, but it is not recommended.

Warning:

If you are normal desktop user of Linux, don’t use manual installation Linux kernel 5.0. Operating System comes with maximum support for hardware and software, if any changes are there Operating system’s companies or owner including patches and upgradation for the tools for compatibilities.

So if anything went wrong in manual installation, revert back to the previous version is not so easy and you need expert system engineer for it.