| MEPIS jumps on 2.6.27 |
Oct. 20, 2008
 Only ten days after the release of Linux 2.6.27, the SimplyMEPIS project has decided to work the new kernel into its next release. The project today used the kernel in both 32- and 64-bit versions of the third beta release of SimplyMEPIS 8.
MEPIS Founder Warren Woodford said the "unexpected" decision to adopt the new kernel resulted from problems in 2.6.26. He stated, "In general, the 2.6.26
kernel was working well, but we knew of a couple of problems. The Intel e01000 series drivers needed to be updated and aufs seemed to be a bit unstable."
Secondary factors in the decision, according to Woodford, included new features in the 2.6.27 release, such as better IPv6 support, and kernel.org's commitment to "long term support" for the release. Kernel developer Adrian Bunk announced the long-term commitment a day after the kernel was launched.
And, though not mentioned by Woodford, the 2.6.27 release includes much better support for webcams, a standard place for dynamically loaded firmware (/lib/firmware), and several filesystem improvements, including a new UBIFS filesystem that could increase performance with not only MTD-type devices, but also solid state disks (SSDs) and even USB keys, if their manufacturers begin to offer them as raw flash devices, rather than including a little ARM7 processor that presents the drive to the system as an IDE block device. (For more about 2.6.27 from a desktop user's point of view, try this highlight story by long-time DesktopLinux editor Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols. Who, by the way, recently deemed MEPIS and SUSE to be his favorite Linux distributions.)
The third beta of SimplyMEPIS is available now, as an ISO download from the "testing" directory on the project's mirrors, apparently labeled "7.9.90-beta." Check back later in the day, and we'll try to have some screen shots for you.
To support the ongoing development of MEPIS, new users are encouraged go to the MEPIS store and become MEPIS subscribers, the project said.
-- Henry Kingman
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