Linus Torvalds has announced this Sunday the release of the Linux 2.6.34 kernel. The release announcement for the Linux 2.6.34 kernel can be read at LKML.org.

With a week having passed since the release of Linux 2.6.35-rc1, Linus Torvalds has now replaced it with Linux 2.6.35-rc2. This second release candidate for the Linux 2.6.35 kernel brings more changes than Linus would have liked to see, but a bulk of the activity is happening within the kernel's driver staging area.

Linus Torvalds has merged the kernel code for the GeForce-compatible nouveau open source graphics driver as a staging driver into the Linux main development tree – from which kernel version 2.6.33 will emerge in around two and a half months.

Now that Linus Torvalds is done rewiring part of his house, he has put out the Linux 2.6.33 kernel release. This update to the Linux kernel that's coming three months after the release of Linux 2.6.32 delivers the Nouveau DRM GPU code in the staging area, many Radeon KMS improvements and it has left the staging area, the new VMware DRM, and much more.

For those that may have forgot, at the start of December we launched the Phoronix Kernel Test Farm to begin benchmarking the Linux kernel on a daily basis using the automated tools that we provide via the Phoronix Test Suite and Phoromatic. Towards the middle of December we then unveiled the Phoromatic Tracker, which exposes these test results in real-time to the public.

Just over two weeks after the release of Linux 2.6.30, Linus Torvalds has released 2.6.31-rc1, the first release candidate of Linux 2.6.31. As usual, "rc1" completes the merge window during which the kernel hackers incorporate the majority of new features into the respective new version's main development branch.

Linus Torvalds announced the release of a stable Linux 2.6.32 kernel. Major additions include kernel-based mode setting (KMS) and 3D graphics support on select Radeon cards, plus new kernel shared memory (KSM) technology for KVM virtualization, power-saving and performance improvements, and a faster "Devtmpfs" boot technology.

Last week after many DRM improvements went into the Linux 2.6.33 kernel Linus Torvalds got a bit upset and wanted Nouveau merged into the mainline kernel. This essentially spells the end of the xf86-video-nv driver, which was never good and should have died off long ago.

Linux Planet: "For the Linux kernel, 2009 has been another banner year, with this week marking the debut of the kernel's fourth major updates.
The year's final update is the 2.6.32 kernel, which was released by Linux founder Linus Torvalds late Wednesday night."