TITLE: Current status of the linearity of mapping class group
QUESTION [11 upvotes]: In the paper A faithful linear-categorical action of the mapping class group of a surface with boundary it is claimed that it was (as of 2014) still unknown that mapping class group is linear, but the authors provide a faithful linear-categorical action of the mapping class group of a surface with necessarily non-empty boundary using knot Floer homology that does not seem decategorifiable in a non-trivial way. 
On the other hand, there exists the following paper, Mapping class groups are linear, in which the author uses the non-commutative machinery to prove that they are. As I have asked in this question, there might perhaps be a mistake in one of the proof ingredients.
Hence the question: is it known that a mapping class group of some surface (possibly with non-empty boundary or non-zero number of punctures) is linear?

REPLY [6 votes]: Yes. There is the paper by Bigelow, and our own Ryan Budney, who do this for genus 2. I believe that is still the last word.