Linux 3.2 kernel released

Linux 3.2 kernel has finally been released following a delay after kernel.org was hacked back in August 2011.

Scanning the copious changelog notes it seems that there are some big changes made to almost every aspect of the kernel. Here are just some of the highlights:

• Ext4 now supports block sizes up to 1MB, which decreases the time spent doing block allocations.
• Btrfs delivers detailed curruption error messages, so instead of something like 'block xyz is bad' you get this: btrfs: checksum error at logical 5085110272 on dev /dev/sde, sector 2474832, root 5, inode 32583, offset 0, length 4096, links 1 (path: default/kernel-0/Makefile)
• Lots of filesystem performance improvements.
• A process scheduler divides the available CPU bandwidth between all processes that need to run.
• Inclusion of a TCP "Proportional Rate Reduction" algorithm, developed by Google, which improves latency and the time to recover.
• Support for transmission of IPv6 packets as well as the formation of IPv6 link-local addresses and statelessly autoconfigured addresses on top of IEEE 802.15.4 networks.

Want to try out Kernel 3.2? It's currently available in the latest beta release of Ubuntu 12.04 (codename 'Precise Pangolin'). Alternatively you can upgrade an existing system by hitting Terminal and using the following command:

sudo update-manager -d

Anyone taken the plunge and upgraded yet?