None other than Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, announced last evening the immediate availability of Linux kernel 2.6.29, a version that brings initial support for the highly expected Btrfs filesystem. Btrfs is a brand new filesystem created by Chris Mason and designed to act like the ZFS or WAFL ones. When Btrfs will be stable, it will definitely replace the Ext filesystem!

Moreover, starting with this release, the Tux Penguin logo was temporarily replaced by the new Tuz logo (see it in the left image), because Linus Torvalds thinks we should all contribute to Save The Tasmanian Devil!

"The most obvious change is the (temporary) change of logo to Tuz, the Tasmanian Devil. But there's a number of driver updates and some m68k header updates (fixing headers_install after the merge of non-MMU/MMU) that end up being pretty noticeable in the diffs." - said Linus Torvalds in the official release announcement.

Highlights of Linux Kernel 2.6.29:

· Kernel Modesetting · Btrfs Filesystem · SquashFS 4.0 · 4096 CPU Support · "Tree RCU": scalable classic RCU · WiMAX Support · Wireless Access Point (WAP) mode support · Filename encryption for eCryptfs · Filesystem freeze funtion · Memory controller swap management and various improvements · Ext4 with "no journal" mode · Metadata checksums for OCFS2 · Added staging drivers · Tuz is the new logo

"This obviously starts the merge window for 2.6.30, although as usual, I'll probably wait a day or two before I start actively merging. I do that in order to hopefully result in people testing the final plain 2.6.29 a bit more before all the crazy changes start up again." - ended Linus Torvalds the announcement for Linux kernel 2.6.29.

And now, let's have a look at some of the new major drivers and the newly supported devices introduced in this release:

Storage: · 32bit PIO support · OCTEON SOC Compact Flash interface (v7) driver · VT8261 support · Large Block Transfer support for sata_sil · cxgb3i iSCSI driver · Fibre Channel over Ethernet · Power Management Resume/Suspend support · ISP81XX support Input: · Walkera WK-0701 RC transmitter support · Touchscreen (tsc2007) driver · PCF50633 input driver · Wacom W8001 support · Touchscreen (da9034) support · Maple controller support Network: · Support for SMSC LAN9420 10/100 PCI ethernet adapter · SMSC LAN921x and LAN911x driver · KS8695 driver · IXP4xx HSS HDLC driver · 5150 support · 82598AT support · PCIe AER support · Atheros AR9285 chipset support · BCM50610 support · HFC USB driver · Mesh Point support · 57780 support · LSI ET1011C PHY driver · Scatter Gather support · Added USB ID for Linksys WUSB200 · Solos PCI ADSL2+ driver

Sound: · ASoC audio driver · Beagleboard support · PCM3008 ALSA SoC driver · WM8728 codec driver · omap2evm support · UDA134x codec driver · Marvell Zylonite support · Lyrtech SFFSDR driver · OMAP3 Pandora support · WM8350 Audioplus codec driver · PXA SSP support · Gumstix Overo support · TWL4030 audio codec support · Atmel AT91SAM9G20ek support · Intel HDMI audio support · ASUS V1sn support · Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Xa3530 support · HP Acacia support · Realtek ALC269 support · ASUS P5Q-EM support · Acer Aspire 4930G support · MCP67 HDMI support · Intel DX58SO support · NVidia MCP78 HDMI support · OLPC analog input support · Claro halo support V4L/DVB: · s921 ISDB-T driver · tw9910 driver · ov772x driver · TEA5764 radio driver · KNC1 DVB-S2 support · lgdt3304 driver · Samsung Q310 webcam support · STB6100 support · HVR-950 IR support (experimental) · STB0899 support · STB6100 support · Technotrend TT S2 3200 support · Satelco Easywatch DVB-S2 PCI card support · Prof 6200 DVB-S PCI card support · Turbosight TBS8910 DVB-S PCI card support · Terratec Cinergy S USB support · Lenovo Thinkpad SL500 webcam support · OMAP2 camera driver · tvp514x I2C video decoder driver · Pixelview PlayTV Box 4 support · Kworld Plus TV Analog Lite PCI support · Medion/Creatix CTX946 support (Analog and DVB-T) · Avermedia AVer TV GO 007 FM Plus support · Compro Videomate E650F (only DVB-T) · Micron MT9T031 CMOS camera support

USB: · Nokia 5200 support · Oxford OXU210HP HCD driver · twl4030 transceiver driver · imx udc gadget driver · opticon serial driver · siemens_mpi usb-serial "stub" driver · Pentax K10D support · Option N.V. ZeroCD modem support · Multi-Tech modem support · Added USB ID for Thomson Speedtouch 121g

These are just a few of the new drivers available in the Linux kernel 2.6.29. For a complete list of all the newly supported devices, newly added drivers, etc., please go here.

You can download the 2.6.29 Linux kernel source right now from Softpedia.