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Comments · 14
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Specific features that make 2.6 better than 2.4
Your question feels a bit of strange question to ask as surely anyone who has looked would notice a huge difference between the latest 2.6 (2.6.28) and the latest 2.4 (2.4.37).
Preemptible kernel (so lower latencies are possible)
Far more devices supported (both in terms of architectures and additional add on devices e.g. SATA support)
Better scheduler (initially made O(1) scales better under load and then fairer with CFS)
Task Control Groups
Better support for threads (schedules them in a more intelligent fashion)
Strict overcommit
Massive VM changes
Tickless/dynticks support
Asynchronous I/O support
Introduction of different I/O schedulers (deadline, cfq
Network stack improvements (faster, better under load e.g. NAPI support)
epoll support
Improved ACPI support
Network filesystem improvements
Initramfs supportThere is a huge list of Linux kernel changes that happened between 2.4 and 2.5. There is also a good Linux kernel 2.5 changes page on IBM's developerworks. Kernelnewbies has an excellent summary of changes for each of the 2.6 kernels and a 2.5 changes page. LWN is also excellent for kernel news.
I hate it when people don't bother to state exactly the points they object to. What other changes (not listed above) do you think the question poster wouldn't benefit from? Follow the links to the full lists (don't just use the ones off the top of your head)...
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More good summaries of kernel development
GREAT article - it is interesting for a non-programmer to read this type of technical detail, presented in an understandable way. For me, right at the edge of my theoretical-only knowledge. A detailed summary, I guess. (oxymoron)
Similar article on NetBSD: Waving the flag: NetBSD developers speak about version 4.0 (1/30/2008)
Linux focused links:
Current discussion:
LWN: Kernel
KernelTrap
KernelNewbies: Summary of Linux Changes
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The Wonderful World of Linux series are excellent history - in-depth for outsiders:
WWOL 2.2
WWOL 2.4
WWOL 2.6
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Towards Linux 2.6 - A look into the workings of the next new kernel(2003)
Kernel Comparison: Linux (2.6.22) versus Windows (Vista)(2007)
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More good summaries of kernel development
GREAT article - it is interesting for a non-programmer to read this type of technical detail, presented in an understandable way. For me, right at the edge of my theoretical-only knowledge. A detailed summary, I guess. (oxymoron)
Similar article on NetBSD: Waving the flag: NetBSD developers speak about version 4.0 (1/30/2008)
Linux focused links:
Current discussion:
LWN: Kernel
KernelTrap
KernelNewbies: Summary of Linux Changes
---
The Wonderful World of Linux series are excellent history - in-depth for outsiders:
WWOL 2.2
WWOL 2.4
WWOL 2.6
---
Towards Linux 2.6 - A look into the workings of the next new kernel(2003)
Kernel Comparison: Linux (2.6.22) versus Windows (Vista)(2007)
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More good summaries of kernel development
GREAT article - it is interesting for a non-programmer to read this type of technical detail, presented in an understandable way. For me, right at the edge of my theoretical-only knowledge. A detailed summary, I guess. (oxymoron)
Similar article on NetBSD: Waving the flag: NetBSD developers speak about version 4.0 (1/30/2008)
Linux focused links:
Current discussion:
LWN: Kernel
KernelTrap
KernelNewbies: Summary of Linux Changes
---
The Wonderful World of Linux series are excellent history - in-depth for outsiders:
WWOL 2.2
WWOL 2.4
WWOL 2.6
---
Towards Linux 2.6 - A look into the workings of the next new kernel(2003)
Kernel Comparison: Linux (2.6.22) versus Windows (Vista)(2007)
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2.6 brought improvements not just new features
Things like the O(1) scheduler and general scheduler improvements, kernel pre-emption (good for audio), ipv6 stack improvements, major changes to the USB subsystem including increased robustness, udev and better hotplug support, VM improvements, major SMP improvements, adoption of ALSA for improved soundcard support (e.g. surround and software mixing), improved build procedure, FAR better ACPI support, suspend to disk support, samba filesytem performance improvements in CIFS, TCP/IP stack improvements...
The Wonderful World of Linux 2.6 page has a more comprehensive list of Linux 2.6 improvements over Linux 2.4 than what I have just mentioned above. Just because the machine I am currently sitting at is fairly old I would not want to be stuck with an old 2.4 kernel because I still benefit from 2.6's changes. -
Re:Somebody help me out...
as I see I wasn't clear enough. let's try again with some easy-to-understand examples:
and:
let me quote an article: The Wonderful World of Linux 2.6
"The final, but possibly the most obvious, ramification of the new centralized infrastructure is the creation of a new "system" filesystem (to join 'proc' for processes, 'devfs' for devices, and 'devpts' for UNIX98 pseudo-terminals) called 'sysfs'. This filesystem (intended to be mounted on '/sys') is a visible representation of the device tree as the kernel sees it (with some exceptions). This representation generally includes a number of known attributes of the detected devices, including the name of the device, its IRQ and DMA resources, power status, and that sort of thing. However, one aspect of this change that may be confusing on the short term is that many of the device-specific uses of the "/proc/sys" directory may be moved into this new filesystem. This change has not (yet) been applied consistently, so there may continue to be an adjustment period." -
Re:How about a Feature Summary/Overview...
Canonical link: Wonderful world of Linux 2.6
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Re:How does this benefit me?
I run linux as my desktop at home, and I also run it at work in a scientific computing cluster.
I'd like to know what benefits I could expect from the new kernel in each area in which I use linux.
Desktop users will benefit from significantly faster and less "jerky" performance.
New sound (ALSA) and video (V4L2) subsystems with improved features and performance.
Much better USB and Firewire support.
Increased hardware support, especially in the areas of bluetooth and wireless.
Under-the-hood changes (threads, reentrancy, preemptiveness, scheduler, block I/O) means your applications should all run a bit faster.
Your scientific cluster applications probably won't see any benefit unless you're hitting hard limits on memory capacity or network performance. In my experience, scientific applications are all CPU bound anyway and could be running on DOS for all it matters.
More accurate information at Wonderful World of Linux 2.6.
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Re:How does this benefit me?
Try the first paragraph of this story for a bunch of technical links. Or this one from Linuxworld for a more introductory overview.
But probably what you really want is Joseph Pranevich's Wonderful World of Linux 2.6. -
Re:How does this benefit me?
This is a good summary from a high level.
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Changelog
Here's a good overview of the new features in 2.6.
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Re:So what's the difference?
One big improvement in 2.6 will be with handling of CD and CD-RW drives. CD audio extraction will be able to use DMA, which should speed it up a lot. Also, CD writing will be possible using the regular IDE driver, so it won't be necessary to use SCSI emulation anymore.
For a really comprehensive description of the changes with 2.6, you might want to look at The Wonderful World of Linux 2.6, which goes into much more detail than anyone on
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Re:What about nearly-free hardware to match?Have you heard of the Simputer?
Also, Linux 2.6 will support CPUs that have no memory-management unit (MMU). Since these CPUs are cheaper, maybe someone will create a very cheap handheld based on Linux 2.6
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Re:This is a big deal.
Another extensive overview of kernel 2.6.