Based on the changelog and this writeup, the latest linux kernel release appears to be pretty power-packed. I'm particularly looking forward to the performance improvements around spreading network load across cpu cores.
On a slightly related note, I find the whole kernel code shepherding process amazing. How many managers have the ability to rattle off the number of post-release-candidate commits (with averages and comparisons against previous release candidates)? Never mind the whole staging and merging process. I think many software teams could learn quite a bit about managing the development process across distributed teams by letting go of centralized source control and watching the linux kernel developers.