New Kernel 2.4 Development Branch (-mjc)

Ivo writes: "kerneltrap is reporting: Michael Cohen announced to the lkml his intention to begin a new 2.4 development tree. The first release of his -mjc branch includes a number of performance enhancing patches, including Robert Love's preemptible kernel patch, Rick van Riel's reverse mapping patch and George Anzinger's real time scheduler patch. Michael says of this patch, "I feel that there's need for a rapidly developing '-ac [like]' tree, and so, here we go. Feel free to test it""

Comments

again.....

[Phosphor3k]

*twirls finger in air*

Re:The Turd Report 01/01/2002

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the funniest post I've read on Slashdot in a week. Thanks TR, you don't know how appreciated your services are by /. readers.

Re:linux

[Anonymous Coward]

mod that shit up!

modding it down just proves more that he is right (which he is anyways).

Great, more fragmentation

[SumDeusExMachina]

You know, there was one point in my life, about 2 years ago, where I was new to Linux and hopeful. It was strange and different, and I was eager to learn its ins and outs.

Then I became cynical. Why? Because I experienced one of the few things worse than DLL hell: kernel version hell. My thoughts when this occured were as follows:

Hmmm... I wonder if I can run XFS without recompiling... Nope, looks like I'll have to upgrade the kernel. But wait! Do I use the -ac kernel with its new VM or do I use the main branch with the most "standard" stuff? Oh crap, looks like 2.4.whatever had a really bad bug by default, and they didn't fix it until 2.4.later. Shit, I don't have the time for this.

And so it goes. Just the other night I decided to dump Linux off my home machine all together and went with FreeBSD. No worrying about the latest kernel or what the best distro is, just have to stay with the most current "RELEASE" version if I want new features. If there are some bugs or (unlikely) security holes, then I just get all the patches for that version, install and recompile. And most importantly, no more retarded Linux VM. As soon as I fired up top, I noticed that while I was compiling something, it actually used *all* of my RAM and never had to swap to disk. That's right, none of this Linux shit about leaving 16MB free and going right to the swap space. Not to mention the moronic implementation of /proc that makes top consume resources by parsing /proc instead of using system calls like any good system would.

I have absolutely no regrets.

Re:Great, more fragmentation

[erat]

Sure, the free sound drivers could be better (remember, though, that OSS from 4-Front is available for FreeBSD, so this isn't a monumental issue), 3D support isn't fantastic, and quality SMP support isn't going to hit FreeBSD until probably version 5.0.

Regardless, your comment about FreeBSD being an inferior desktop OS is simply, undeniably, completely wrong. The same open source and free software available for Linux (with VERY few exceptions) is available for FreeBSD. If you're a gamer then 3D and sound may be an issue for you, but call a spade a spade, "desktop box" != "game box". When I think of desktop machines, I think of productivity, machines that help you get lots of important stuff done easily and quickly. When I think of game machines I think of Playstation 2s. Sorry, but I would rather spend $300 on a PS2 than dedicate my $2,000 PC to gaming (the PS2 would probably run better anyway).

Yes, I am another Linux --> FreeBSD convert. My machine does run better with FreeBSD, Mozilla actually works efficiently even with debugging stuff compiled in, and I get LOTS less zombie processes and frozen apps, etc. now that I've switched over. And yes, my Linux machine at work runs the exact same software and window manager as my machine at home (except for Mozilla, of course).

Both OSes have their plusses and minuses. Linux is more ubiquitous, but I still think FreeBSD has eeked ahead in some areas. Not all -- Linux will be in the lead for quite some time, I'm sure -- but some.

Rather than poo poo FreeBSD based on game stuff, why not try it as an actual desktop OS?

Re:Great, more fragmentation

[Mark Bainter]

[snip] Just the other night I decided to dump Linux off my home machine all together and went with FreeBSD. [snip] I have absolutely no regrets.

Great! I'm glad you found an OS that makes you productive and happy. However, those things which you list do not make *BSD a better OS. They make it a different OS. *BSD appeals to a different type of user, imo. Ignoring the masses on both sides and looking at the core userbase that is. Some of us like having flexibility and choice, and we don't mind putting in the time to know all about our system. When that's the case little things like a lot of kernel versions just aren't a big deal.

Linux is not for everybody. Neither is *BSD. Each person has to decide for themselves which system fits their needs and then use it. All this OS bigotry is just ridiculous.

I'm all for proselytizing, and cheering the benefits. The problem (for me at least) comes in when people have this underlying tone of trying to declare one OS better than the other. Isn't it enough that you use it? (speaking generally here, not specifically to the previous poster) Or do you need the masses to agree with you before your choice can be validated?

Re:linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot WILL NOT STOP being linux centric. It is and has always been a linuxy site. It is not YOUR site. it is CmdrTaco's site. He and the other /. "editors" can do whatever they want with it. If you don't like it, go to MSDN, or adequacy, for discussions that might be of more interest to you.

Turd Report named 2001 Troll of the Year

[Anonymous Coward]

I just saw this on BBC, the Turd Report was named the 2001 Troll of the Year! See it yourself, but I'll quickly include some of their comments: "... for his prolific and inspired posting...", "...we can say that the Turd Report speaks for us all.".

This certainly is another feather in his cap. Very impressive turd report, keep up the good work.

Re:this sounds really cool but

[Anonymous Coward]

i'm afraid it will really confuse a lot of people out there

Well if you are dumb enough to get confused by that, you shouldn't be compiling a kernel in the first place....

Re:this sounds really cool but

[sporty]

Well, I agree with you possibly. They need more time to become household names as well as good branding. After all, are you that confused that there's an OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and BSD/OS? It confused me at first, but it took 10 minutes of research to figure it all out. Not to mention one is at 3.0, another is at 4.4 (or is that 4.5) etc etc..

If there are different goals, not a bad choice for fragmenting.