Kernel 2.6.28: "Happy Holidays" from Torvalds
Linus Torvalds has kept his promise and released Kernel 2.6.28 right at the Holidays. The little present shows some doings since Release Candidate 9, especially in the DVB-T area and for PCI hotplug devices.
In his announcement, Linus "almost Santa" Torvalds summarizes the small changes since RC9 and suggests that "all good boys and girls" should install the kernel as soon as they can. He says, "if your computer could smile, it would have a big silly grin on its non-existent face."
Kernel 2.6.28 brings notably better memory management. Among other important improvements is support for the ext4 successor to the ext3 filesystem. The evolved ext4 filesystem has long been part of the kernel, but finally graduated out of "in development" status. Completely new are support for Ultra Wide Band IP (UWB-IP) on wireless USB and the atl2 driver for Fast Ethernet devices from Atheros built into several Asus mainboards and netbooks.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Debian 13.0 Officially Released
After two years of development, the latest iteration of Debian is now available with plenty of under-the-hood improvements.
-
Upcoming Changes for MXLinux
MXLinux 25 has plenty in store to please all types of users.
-
A New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle, a Linux AI assistant, works with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.