Kernel 4.8 Device Support Grows

Kernel 4.8 has been outed as ready.

It’s a fairly large update.  It provides support for a few things that I think a lot of Linux users have been looking for.  I know a few of these driver updates unlocks a few devices I have skipped over due to the inability to reliably support touch screens, wifi, etc.  So over the next few months start looking for Linux to be popping up on all of these things.  Support includes things like the touchscreen for the Surface 3.  Which will bring Android X86’s project along to the Surface 3 as well as RemixOS.  The kernel now supports the Broadcom SOC like in the Raspberry Pi3 and “lots of updated drivers, in particular for GPU, networking, and Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Module (NVDIMM), a bunch of improvements to the ARM, MIPS, SPARC, and x86 hardware architectures, updates to the networking stack and a few filesystems, as well as some minor changes to cgroup and vm.”

It’s pretty exciting!  I’ve personally been looking at the Surface for some time but haven’t pulled the trigger because I’m hesitant to be getting my first Windows computer since I was a kid.  I’m just not ready to switch my development environments over yet (or afraid too).  I have at least one other friend in the same mindset as me.

If you’re wanting something that comes out of the box ready with Android and Windows 10 in similar device such as the Surface 3 check out Banggood or GearBest.  There are a dozen devices that currently run this setup.

For the super detailed list check

If you’re interested in this kernel for your tablet or pi, keep in mind “some buggy crap” made it in 4.8 according to Linus.  I’m not exactly sure what at this point, but it’ll be amended soon enough.