Linux Kernel 2.6.27 released

Linux kernel 2.6.27 was released last night by its father, Linus Torvalds - "So not a lot happened after -rc9, which is mostly good. I certainly don't want to have any upheavals at the end of an -rc series, although I wouldn't have minded more people looking at the regression list. That said, I think we're in pretty good shape, and it's not like I can hold back releases indefinitely anyway." The new version brings improved support for many webcams, lots of new drivers and many other interesting features.

It adds a new filesystem (UBIFS) for 'pure' flash-based storage, the page-cache is now lockless, much improved Direct I/O scalability and performance, delayed allocation support for ext4, multiqueue networking, data integrity support in the block layer, a function tracer, a mmio tracer, sysprof support, improved webcam support, support for the Intel wifi 5000 series and RTL8187B network cards, a new ath9k driver for the Atheros AR5008 and AR9001 chipsets, more new drivers, and many other improvements and fixes.

Linux kernel 2.6.27:

• Lockless page cache and get_user_pages()
• Delayed allocation for Ext4 filesystem
• Kexec jump: kexec/kdump based hibernation
• OMFS and UBIFS
• Support for block layer data integrity
• Multiqueue networking
• Support for sysprof and ftrace
• Mmiotrace
• External firmware
• Better webcam support thanks to the gspca driver
• Extended file descriptor system calls
• Current and Voltage regulator

Networking:

• Added Atheros IEEE 802.11n driver
• Added Atheros L1E Gigabit Ethernet driver
• Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5000AGN support
• RTL8187B support
• Renesas SuperH Ethernet support

Sound:

• Added EM-X270 ASoC driver
• Added ALC663 support
• Added ASoC drivers
• Support for SGI HAL2 audio devices

V4L/DVB:

• Samsung DTOS403IH102A tuner support
• Added Anysee DVB-T/C receiver driver
• ATI TV Wonder HD 600 support
• Dvbworld DVB-S 2102 USB card support

Input:

• Add HTC Shift Touchscreen Driver
• New driver for SGI O2 volume buttons
• Add driver for Tabletkiosk Sahara TouchIT-213 touchscreen
• Add new serio driver for Xilinx XPS PS2 IP
• Add driver for Atmel integrated touchscreen controller
• bcm5974 - add driver for Macbook Air and Pro Penryn touchpads
• bcm5974 - implement autosuspend support
• Add support for SuperH MigoR touchscreen
• Add driver for iNexio serial touchscreen.

The pace at which the Linux kernel is moving and yet still maintaining quality is incredible. It is clearly the case that the Linux kernel has hit a new kind of critical mass and is now a form of software development that has never been seen before.

As always it is better to wait for the provision of core packages in your favorite distribution rather than engage in this manual installation.

Other info: UBIFS used for flash memory WITHOUT SATA controller. In other words, it does not really used with SSD drives currently available but rather with the flash memory for the main board

Other info 2: the "famous" OMFS is a "trick" developed by SONICblue for their readers and multimedia used by RIO. In fact, the FS is optimized for nothing at all (and surely not for MPEG) and the developers themselves have acknowledged, it is quite likely to slow down playback.
Is better to use an FS "normal" (ext3, xfs, etc.)