Linus Says Pre-2.6 is Coming

gomoX writes "As seen on C|Net , Linus has announced that the pre-2.6 series will be starting in early July. Despite not having been able to meet the release goal for 2.6 in June 2003, the next stable version is not as far away as you may think. You can take your guess based on the fact there was a 9 month period between first test version of 2.4 and the official release of 2.4.0 on January 2001."

Comments

Re:What have I got to look forward to?

[bethane]

Being a LKML lurker, here are a few of the new features.

In-kernel Module Loader and Unified parameter support: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rust y/patches/Module/

Nanosecond Time Patch: http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0210 .3/0793.html

Fbdev Rewrite: http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0111 .3/1267.html

Linux Trace Trollkit (LTT): http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0204 .1/0832.html

statfs64: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=103 610918825614&w=2

POSIX Timer API: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=103 553654329827&w=2

Shared Pagetable support: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=103 498293902006&w=2

Hotplug CPU Removal Support and Kernel Probes

Re:What have I got to look forward to?

[anshil]

I think for me most important the ALSA sound system is finally part of the linus kernel. Meaning you do not need to patch the kernel anymore to get recent sound support.

Re:Microsoft leads the way with SP4 for Windows 20

[be-fan]

The Windows kernel hasn't changed significantly since the NT4 -> Win2K change. The biggest improvement in the XP kernel was pre-faulting the pages of large processes. Meanwhile, in 2.6, the block I/O layer, VM layer, scheduler, and sound system are brand new. And the whole kernel was made preemptible! Shortly after 2.6, ReiserFS 4 (which looks very promising from initial benchmarks) will be released. In all, 2.4 -> 2.6 will be like NT4 -> XP!

PS> Before anyone bitches about rewrites being a bad thing, look at things this way. Such extensive changes are necessary for the continually growing range of systems Linux is expected to run on. 2.0 and 2.2 were greatfor single CPU servers, or SMP machines with only a few processors. 2.4 is very usable for heavy-duty machines with many more processors. 2.6 (along with the changes that help interactivity) will make an excellent kernel for desktop machines and workstations. In 2.8, the focus will be on optimizing the core algorithms to run on large-scale NUMA machines.

Re:Distro Upgrade?

[Genyin]

Also, the old OSS modules are still in the kernel. I haven't tried them in 2.5, and they are marked with a big DEPRECATED, but they're still there.

Note, of course, as I've said elsewhere, you do need the new module-init-tools; I'd imagine that would be the most likey reason you'd have trouble getting a 2.5 kernel working, followed closely by an out of date/broken driver.