Kernel developer and Novell coworker Greg Kroah-Hartman manages new drivers in a separate tree for the Linux drivers project. He most recently reported that a few projects will have to depart from Kernel 2.6.33, among them also Google.

After releasing a new Kernel version, Linus Torvalds needed a few days of rest to put some remaining patches into the next release. The so-called merge window has closed, with the 2.6.33 branch now open.

The SysUsage monitoring tool is available in a new version 3.0 and provides a completely reworked Web interface.

Debian and Ubuntu developer Julian Andres Klode has reported in his blog about the progress of his APT2 software, an alternative implementation of the Debian Advanced Packaging Tool (APT).

Good news for anyone with a NVIDIA graphics card: the Nouveau driver goes into Kernel 2.6.33 and supports DRM.

The HA technology, Distributed Replicated Block Device (DRBD), is to be merged into the official Linux kernel, probably from version 2.6.33.

On Thursday, the first alpha version of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is to be made available. The official release will be out in April 2010. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS should feature significantly more stability, being based on the just released Kernel 2.6.32 as a precedent to the Long Term version.

The Java, cross-platform RText editor has achieved version 1.0.0. It recognizes numerous programming languages and otherwise preserves most of its usual features.