The latest release of the Linux kernel, 2.6.33 is expected to be out by the beginning of March and among its new features is a reverse-engineered driver for Nvidia graphics chipsets.

Jonathan Corbet, Linux kernel contributor, co-founder of LWN.net and the lead author of Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition, will give Linux.conf.au attendees a full update on the Linux kernel at the conference on Wednesday. He told Computerworld version 2.6.33 is “pretty well along in production”.

“All the features have been added and we are testing stablisation now,” he said. “One of my favourite things would be a driver called Nouveau.”

The driver has been reverse-engineered for Nvidia graphics chipsets, which constitutes a major part of the desktop market. Nvidia doesn’t cooperate in terms of drivers so the effort has involved about a dozen developers from all over the world, including Australia.

“It has been a master reverse engineering effort,” Corbet said. "In the last year we’ve seen a great deal of work done on graphics drivers.”

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