Interesting Features, Changes In The Linux 3.9 Kernel

With the release of the Linux 3.9 kernel being imminent, here's a recap of the most interesting features coming to this next Linux release.

On Phoronix have been dozens of articles talking about new features, fixes, and other activity found within the Linux 3.9 kernel. There's also already been many Linux benchmarks done from this forthcoming kernel release. In looking back, some of the top items include:

- File-system improvements; see our HDD and SSD Linux 3.9 file-system benchmarks. Btrfs has experimental RAID5/6 support and fsync performance improvements. There's also a fix for an EXT4 corruption bug. Samsung's new F2FS file-system has seen various improvements.

- Faster LZO compression within the kernel.

- Improved power management, including a new lightweight suspend mode.

- Improved ARM SoC support.

- Mainlining of Google's Goldfish.

- Support for a new architecture that's already powering billions of devices.

- Many DRM graphics driver changes. Nouveau, the open-source reverse-engineered NVIDIA Linux graphics driver, is faster for some Linux OpenGL games. There's also some Intel OpenGL performance changes.

It's exciting to look forward to the imminent release of the Linux 3.9 kernel, but there's already features making enthusiasts interested in the Linux 3.10 kernel. Fortunately, it's a never-ending cycle.