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Linux 3.0
An anonymous reader writes "In a post to the kernel mailing list, Rob Landley, sitting in for the floating Linus, cracks the whip over what will be in Linux 3.0. His orders are on Linux and main."
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No, the article says "3.0-pre (or 2.6-pre) series". And what's the big deal after all ?. Call it 2.6, 3.0, whatever :-)
Here is a good place to find out about the state of various features...
there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
Before anyone gets going on it.
/dev/dsp :)
There have been MAJOR features added to this Kernel.
Including
- UML
- New VM
- New Scheduler
- Finer SMP Locking
- At least 2 new Journaled FS (Reiserfs4 and XFS?)
- A new POSIX thread library/API.
Does anyone know if ALSA will be included?
We will finally be able to forget about the 1980's style
--
Matt
One word: performance.
The patches in that list don't really relate to this, but there has been a lot of profiling and optimization with this new kernel. If you can get your "normal user" work done a few percent faster, without purchasing any new hardware, then you ought to care.
Check out something like WOLK - it includes the Supermount patches, which do exactly what you want (as well as automount of NFS shares upon first access).
Why doesn't Linux automount (please note that I did not say 'Autoplay') removeable media? (Note, I only use 2.4 kernels in servers. This may have changed recently, and I justed missed it, but...)
In my Red Hat servers I do this with the autofs daemon. I've used it successfully with both CD-ROM and ZIP drives, and had no problems sharing automounted drives with Samba.
Mandrake has for years now (with the exception of the 8.1 release, I believe) gone one step further by using a kernel patched with "Supermount", which is a "true" automount like you are probably thinking of.
So in fact, Linux has had this ability for quite some time now.
Linus is here for the next week, until the feature freeze.
ONLY intel users...
anyone that has used a MAC or any other proper system that uses a powered eject or locking media like it is supposed to be so that you dont trash the filesystem on the disc.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
What are you going off about? How can having a CD automount give way to having "information leaks" (on a read only media?!?) or "trash the system"?? In order to do this you would have to run something on the CD, which is a totally different point of security. You're rambling about nothing.
The 2.5 builds were development builds, they are supposed to be unstable, because they are full of code that is being tested.
Everyone, especially Linus, hopes that the 2.6 (or 3.0) series has a more stable start than the 2.4 series did.
The real answer is when Linus and the core kernel developers believe it is ready, and there is no schedule, because they don't know when that will be. The answer I believe everyone is hoping for, is by the end of the year, since that will let it be included in the next release cycle by the major distributions (Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake), who are probably targeting releases late in the first quarter of the year.
This page contains a complete list of every new feature that has gone into 2.5, and other features waiting to be integrated and their status:
http://kernelnewbies.org/status/latest.html
No, this time Linux is correct since the topic is about the kernel.
... distribute GNU/Linux (you would not do much with a Linux distribution).
If you are talking about the Operating System, you should address it as GNU/Linux (same as you have GNU/Mach).
e.g. Debian, SuSE, Redhat,
You must have amnesia RMS, since you learnt us to cite:
GNU is the operating system and Linux is one of its kernels
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
Very unfortunate example of yours. The CD is trashed, someone inserts that piece of trash into this super-feature automount. However, this dodo, instead of checking that dumb CD, he goes take some coffee. In seconds, the machine starts to sloooooooooow doooown as the dumbish CD-reader kicks more and more interrupts into the system. True story. I drunk his cup of coffee while he ran away to KICK THAT DAMN CD OUTTA THE SERVER 'CAUSE IT IS STUCK INSIDE!!!
Other example. Mr. A. H. Wannabeahacker has an account in some machine. He inserts the super-pupper CD - CrACkZ, hACKz and SuXXs. Plays a little bit and turns the server into a washing machine. Another true story. Those who work at University computer classes may have seen this a few times...
So people. I know that the autofs features are pretty cool. I do use them. But in user workstations ONLY! The lack of automount in a desktop station is a distro problem not a kernel one. All the basic infrastructure for automount is in the kernel already. However there should be some more tweaking on it, as certain types of ZIPs, CDs and HDDs may seriously influence the performance of the kernel while being mounted. It would be great to see some some kind of double checking of errors so that certain cascades wouldn't happen.
You mean it was determined the kernel is going to be called 3.0 instead of being called 2.6 after all?
It was not. Linus will decide that, not Rob Landry.
Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
Id say try out the Mandrake distribution (Linux-Mandrake.com) as its very good for making the hop from Windows to GNU/Linux.
Ive tried Red Hat but personally prefer Mandrake 9.0. Checkout Linux.com & for any hints tips / tutorials Google is always the best bet.
The feature he's referring to is the ability to treat files also as directories, and it promises to be a majorly cool enhancement to Linux that rewrites one of the most basic assumptions of OS design. The idea is that by improving the power of the filing system layer, and boosting the performance of the FS for small files, the need to have databases layered on top (and even /etc/passwd is a database) is eliminated. This in turn leads to a more powerful OS as that power is made generic, so being available to everything. It's better explained by Reiser himself.
One problem - 2.6/3.0 won't have that ability. What it will have is a special system call reiser4() that Hans can play with. You won't be able to "cat /etc/passwd/mike/group" anytime soon, unfortunately, this kind of major change takes a long time to work its way though the system. The reiser4 call will allow Hans to experiment with the new semantics before we even start to think about merging with the actual kernel.
Why is small file performance so important (this is the area where RFS kicks the ass of, well, pretty much everything else)? Because there are quite a lot of files out there which would actually be better stored as lots of small files. /etc/passwd is one good example, there are others. The reason they aren't currently stored as files is because traditionally filing systems have sucked when you have lots and lots of very small files, and we're talking like perhaps 5 byte files here. Reiser4 has some extremely clever algorithms in it, which mean it's good at small files but also large files too.
Of course, this is just the start of a much bigger picture, that'll see the filing system become something akin to a searchable knowledge store. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen quickly. For starters, if you were to suggest to the maintainer of app foo that they should store their data as lots of small files, they's say "no way, some of my users are on ext3, or xfs, or jfs" etc. Reiser has great vision, but he's not the only player in this field, and I have a nasty suspicion that the goal of exploding out large files into filing system structures could prove to be difficult while other filing systems are prevalent. Let's hope not, eh?
Welllll, if it's 3.0 that you want to try, I'd wait a few months (at least). For starters, most of the major commercial distros (and for a beginner, you want a commercial distro) have just had major revs and so won't be upgrading their kernels for a while. Linux 3 will a lot of testing before all the wrinkles are ironed out, even after release, so when you start seeing companies like RedHat, Mandrake and SuSE (the one I use) shipping with a 2.6/3.0 based kernel, then you know it'll be ready.
On the other hand, if this story just piqued your interest, and you want to try anyway (2.4.18 is pretty good) then head over to linux.com where they have a good newbie article and a ton of links to help you out. A good boxed commercial distro will come with printed manuals to get you started, and if you get stuck, want to know a command etc (and you will) come say hi to us all on irc://irc.freenode.net/#linuxhelp
DOS-Based Windows versions:
Windows 95 = Windows 4.0.950
Windows 95B = Windows 4.0.1111
Windows 98 = Windows 4.1.1998
Windows 98 SE = Windows 4.1.2222
Windows ME = Windows 4.9.3000
NT-Based Windows versions:
Windows 2000 = Windows 5.0.2195
Windows XP = Windows 5.1.2600
HTH.
"Slashdot - the one place on the internet where guys brag about how small it is." - that IT girl
You must have a newer XP version than I do. dir a: without a floppy in the drive creates the following message on my system:
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\dir a:
The device is not ready.
"Slashdot - the one place on the internet where guys brag about how small it is." - that IT girl
Wintendo has no floppy device, and I have disabled the floppy controller in the BIOS. Accidently clicking it in explorer makes the A750 into a paperweight for a few minutes, as I have to deal with Windows trying to work with what isn't there. It's probably partially the BIOS's fault, but the entire thing is a cluster fuck that should've been fixed back in the days of Win95.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The kexec patch should do the main part of the trick. And its status is Ready.
>Absolutly. If what you have now works, then by >all means, don't upgrade......with a caveat. As
>with any OS, after 3.0 or 2.6 whatever it's going
>to be called comes out, then bug fixes may not be
>done for that much longer to the 2.4 series.
You'd have to worry more about new features and hardware support getting in than bug fixes. The 2.0 kernel is still being maintained and its over six years old.
>After a while, you will probably want to upgrade
>anyway especially if your company pays for >support from Red Hat or whoever.
If you're paying for support from a company, you'd probably be best off running whatever kernel that's current for the distribution, unless you have some specific reason to deviate. And with the lengthened life cycle of products like Advanced Server, the likelyhood of having to move to a new kernel for support reasons is even lower.
Matt
No, only Debian distributes GNU/Linux. SuSE distributes SuSE Linux, and Red Hat distributes Red Hat Linux.
;)
I'd remark on how the kernel increasing influence on userland makes the notion of "GNU/Linux" obsolete... but I'll leave it at that to minimize flames.