Linux 2.6.10 kernel hits street

The newest version of the Linux kernel has been released by creator and open-source maven Linus Torvalds.

Dubbed Woozy Numbat by Torvalds, the 2.6.10 kernel includes a long list of minor fixes and changes to the operating system.

"Mostly a lot of small fixes since 2.6.10-rc3, with the biggest thing being probably the CIFS [Common Internet File System] update and the switch-over to the new DVB frontend driver world order," wrote Torvalds in an e-mail announcing the final version of 2.6.10.

"Some MMC and USB work too, and ARM updates as usual," he added.

The first iteration of 2.6 was released in 2003, and has made it into several commercial Linux distributions, including Novell's SuSE Linux.

Rival Red Hat, however, is still using an earlier kernel in its Enterprise editions, although it plans to move to 2.6 with Enterprise Linux 4 in the first quarter of 2005.

The 2.6.10 kernel can be downloaded from the Linux Kernel Archives site.