Linux 3.1 is here - Update

Linus Torvalds has now released Linux kernel 3.1, tagging it in the git source code control system and uploading it to kernel.org, but not, apparently announcing it in the mailing lists yet. Update: Torvalds has now announced by email the release of Linux 3.1. He and his colleagues have taken three months to produce this version. That's about three to four weeks longer than its predecessors – a consequence of the security breach at kernel.org – putting the development of the Linux kernel significantly out of step.

Together with the current Nouveau driver code for Mesa and X.org, this second kernel of the 3.x series will bring 3D acceleration on several current GeForce graphics chips. The new Linux version also includes enhancements that improve the speed or expand the capabilities of both the KVM and Xen virtualisation systems. Other additions include optimisations to Btrfs, discard support in dm-crypt and bad block management for software RAID. As always there are many new or updated drivers which significantly improve hardware support.

An overview of these and other advances in the kernel, and a look at upcoming changes in Linux kernel 3.2, is available in an article on The H Open:

• What's new in Linux 3.1

Specific details about the new features of the Linux 3.1 kernel are provided by the articles in the Kernel Log series, "Coming in 3.1":

• Part 1: Networking
  
• Part 2: Storage and filesystems
• Part 3: Architecture, infrastructure and virtualisation
• Part 4: Drivers

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