Intel Puts Out Its 2011 Holiday Linux Package

The 2011Q4 Linux graphics driver package has been released.

The 2011Q4 Linux graphics package comes weeks after the release of the xf86-video-intel 2.17 DDX/X.Org driver.

While this package doesn't mark the release of any new software, Intel defines the 2011Q4 graphics package as being the Linux 3.1 kernel, Mesa 7.112, xf86-video-intel 2.17.0, libdrm 2.4.27, libva 1.0.15, and vaapi-driver-intel 1.0.15. This is the configuration they recommend for Linux end-users and distributors. They tested these components against X.Org Server 1.11.1.

Compared to what they released last quarter as the 2011Q3 package, using these new components provides features like:

- Frame-buffer compression support by default for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge.
- Significant performance improvements.
- Improved support for different outputs.
- Better Intel Ivy Bridge (Gen7) support.
- Improved OpenGL ES (GLES) support.
- Many fixes to the UXA 2D acceleration back-end.
- Improves to the experimental SNA 2D acceleration back-end.
- Video acceleration fixes.

There's also other work incorporated by these packages as talked about on the 2011Q4 package page.