A new Linux kernel 3.4 has been released, according to a post from Linux fellow Linus Torvalds.

Often a huge barrier for aficionados of both Tux and Android; they now play nicely as Linux kernel brings support for development on Google’s OS along with SSD caching and other Jelly Bean-sweet improvements.

For Android development, the Goldfish VDE has been the choice inclusion allowing developers to start an instance of Google’s software on a kernel easily.

On the caching side, this support is experimental as the ‘dm-cache’ target. This lets one drive act as a cache for another greatly increasing the data write/read speeds available through utilising an SSD.

Also experimental is RAID 5 and RAID 6 support for developers to implement features difficult through simply using the layer system. The benefits of RAID are therefore present, in the event of a failure only some data needs to be restored as the file system can tell what areas are occupied.

Benefitting (primarily mobile) devices is now a mode between the “suspend to RAM” and normal idle states. The kernel allows for a “deep sleep” state without actually completely powering down. Linux distribution, Ubuntu, is sure to be thankful for this as they head to mobile.

This release took only two months (well, 63 days to be picky) in development, which is faster than any of the past 13 releases, yet still manages to cram more in.

Version 3.4 also features new graphics card support (including Nvidia’s “Kepler” architecture) along with a patch by Intel developers enabling RC6 – the low power support found on “Sandy Bridge” processors which contain a GPU.

You can download the latest version on Kernel.org, or on many of the worldwide mirrors.

Will this latest kernel version bring welcome changes you’re excited for? Perhaps, you will be especially in regards to Android development support?