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Preview Of Linux 2.5
mojo-raisin writes: "Linux Weekly News is providing a report of the 'Linux 2.5 Kernel Summit,' a gathering of 65 core kernel hackers. Notes are provided on the first day of session, which covers changes required to make Linux more capable on high-performance machines and more user-friendly with hot pluggable devices." 2.5 looks close on the horizon, especially now that Linus has donned a funny paper hat. Better get your feature requests in soon;)
that's right...i have been learning visual basic now for about a month, and have been learning some 'advanced' topics, like modal dialog boxes and the menu editor by readind the linux source code. while there doesn't seem to be too much GUI code in the kernel so far, i'm sure that will change in the future. when it does, a VB guru like myself will be an invaluable addition to the kernel team. it's unfair to limit participation to only 65 developers!!! even beginners like myself can add something. for instance, all that talk of 'spinlocks'...well...i learned about a new VB control today, the 'spinner box'. you just drag it onto your form and it works!!! i'm sure if linus knew of this control, he could just drag it into the kernel source and get that 'spinlock' stuff he was talking about.
Isn't detecting CPU and internal system temperature already done at the BIOS level? It shouldn't be hard to implement here; just test the temperature levels every time a disk operation fails. But maybe the rest of the room is on fire! But we'll save space in the bad block table once the system is restored.
If you read further down the article, you'll see that Stephen Tweedie, a well-established kernel hacker, read his laundry list of changes, many of which mirrored the Oracle suggestions. Oracle is just pointing out what limits the performance of their file-intensive applications, limitations that other kernel hackers who care about file performance also observed.
I don't think you should see this as Oracle demanding stuff from Linux hackers. I think it is very useful that developers of high-performance application software, such as Oracle, are giving this kind of feedback on kernel performance issues.
Kernel hackers can use this for our (the users) good, not just Oracle's.
Sure, everyone can contribute anything to the kernel. But this summit wasn't for those who regularly submit drivers/documentation fixes etc., however important they are. This meeting is for people who design the subsystems, API:s and other core-parts; the very intestinals. I like to think of myself as having contributed to quite some things in the kernel; bugfixes, documentation, the driver-management system for the MCA-subsystem and what not. I also maintain the v2.0.xx-kernel series.
However, I do not feel the least bit slighted by not being invited to the summit. Why? Because I wouldn't have done a lot of good there anyway. I'm not really the kind of visionary (and more importantly, the great OS-theory scholar) that are needed in such a meeting. I'm a codeslave. I munch C for breakfast, and I'm proud of it. I write manualpages for lunch, and I'm proud of it. I fix typos for dinner, and I'm proud of it. But hacking up a new scheduler or an OOM-killer? Merely the thought gives me a headache. I'd rather search for memory-leaks or possible deadlocks.