The September 2026 open-source release cycle stayed busy through the second week. Linux 7.2.3 landed with a notable rollback from Liquorix Linux, Intel pushed a new NPU driver release candidate, Wine 11.17 arrived with VKD3D 2.1, and KDE Plasma 6.8 continued its refinement toward what is now expected to be an October or November release.
Liquorix Linux 7.2.3: Project-C scheduler reverted
Liquorix Linux has officially shipped kernel 7.2-6, though the release is defined less by what it adds and more by what it strips away. Just 20 hours after introducing the ambitious Project-C custom scheduler, maintainer Steven Barrett pulled a full revert to restore stability to the v7.2.3 upstream base. The rapid four-version sprint from September 3rd to 5th suggests the new scheduler introduced regressions severe enough to warrant an immediate rollback.
The Liquorix project remains AMD64-only and lacks official support for ARM hardware. The previous kernel 7.2-5 focused on Project-C scheduler optimizations that keep coupled tasks on SMT sibling threads and prioritize placing sync wakees on the waker's core before looking at idle CPUs — a niche but relevant update for Linux gamers and audio producers chasing lower wake latency.
Intel Linux NPU driver 1.38.0-rc1
Intel has released version 1.38.0-rc1 of its Linux NPU driver, bringing an updated compiler submodule, fresh firmware binaries, and core driver changes targeted at the latest Wildcat Lake hardware. The release candidate is tagged npu_ud_2026_38_rc1 and builds on the open-source stack that powers AI inference on Intel Core Ultra processors spanning from Meteor Lake to Wildcat Lake.
The NPU driver is part of Intel's broader push into AI acceleration on the client side, competing with the neural processing units being built into chips from AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple. The open-source Linux stack is a meaningful differentiator for developers who want to run on-device inference without a proprietary runtime.
Wine 11.17 with VKD3D 2.1
Wine 11.17 is now available as the latest bi-weekly development release, landing on September 4, 2026, with initial display mode emulation and a VKD3D upgrade to 2.1. VKD3D is the Vulkan-based implementation of Direct3D 12 that enables Windows games to run on Linux — the upgrade brings better compatibility for newer titles that rely on more recent Direct3D 12 features.
KDE Plasma 6.8 continues refinement
KDE Plasma 6.8 continues its pre-release refinement cycle, with additional improvements including an exclusive mode for krdp that locks local screens during remote sessions and union styles moving into System Settings for easier theming. With these landing among the final features of the cycle, Plasma 6.8 is expected to ship in October or November 2026 following KDE's six-month release cadence.
Other September releases
The broader open-source ecosystem saw Firefox 155, Audacity 4.0, Thunderbird 155, LibreOffice 26.2.6, OpenVPN 2.7.7, Rust 1.98.1, Mesa 26.2.2, and Linux From Scratch 13.1 all ship in early September. Talos Linux 1.14.0 added DNS over TLS and HTTPS support with Btrfs as a new filesystem option, and Grml 2026.09 arrived as a Debian-based live system for system administrators.