What seemed impossible years ago could now become a reality: a Linux driver from Microsoft in the kernel.

Developer Andrew Tridgell has made known that he devised a patch to avoid the possible patent issues with the VFAT filesystem in Linux.

The introduction of Mono into Linux and the open source environment begs risking patent claims from Microsoft. Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman sees it that way. The Technical board at Ubuntu, on the other hand, doesn't consider it any reason to be disturbed.

In the conference's traditional "Kernel Kwestioning" seminar this year in Berlin, 11 kernel developers addressed questions from the public. The result was that the panel of experts invited the entire community to send Linux drivers to the kernel mailing list, quality notwithstanding.

Linux and multitouch input also work without X.org and with help from the new Kernel 2.6.30. Three French students show how it's done.

Development of the next Kernel 2.6.31 has just begun, which leaves Linus Torvalds some time for blogging again. He's apparently in good spirits, at least as to the current source code management.

Thanks to the already implemented fastboot patches, the new Kernel 2.6.30 has the ability to recognize hard disks simultaneously and therefore significantly quicker. Ext 4 operates more securely, and Ext 3 increases performance.