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g · HardwareCurated

Linux kernel 2.6.33-rc5 released

Summary

In January 2010 the fifth release candidate of Linux 2.6.33 brought a driver for DVB cards with the widely used Mantis chipset into the main branch. The Intel graphics driver gained support for embedded DisplayPorts, and there were fixes for Radeon KMS, XFS and eCryptfs. According to the report, Nouveau, DRBD and Ceph had made it into the kernel before, while Btrfs was still considered experimental.

Ideas

  • Drivers for popular TV cards move from add-on packages into the kernel.
  • Release candidates only bring targeted driver and bug fixes.
  • Replication and distributed file systems became part of the standard kernel.

Insights

  • Mainline drivers spare users from rebuilding external modules after every kernel update.
  • In 2010, with DRBD and Ceph, the kernel prepared the ground for distributed storage solutions.

Facts

  • Linux 2.6.33 was announced for early March 2010.
  • Also new was the rt2800pci driver for Wi-Fi cards with Ralink chipsets.

References

Critique

  • The list mixes new features from different development phases without weighting them.

Recommendations

  • Prefer TV and capture hardware with drivers in the mainline kernel.
  • For replication or distributed storage, rely on the components maintained in the kernel.

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