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Linux 2.6.27 Out
diegocgteleline.es writes "Linux 2.6.27 has been released. It adds a new filesystem (UBIFS) for 'pure' flash-based storage, the page-cache is now lockless, much improved Direct I/O scalability and performance, delayed allocation support for ext4, multiqueue networking, data integrity support in the block layer, a function tracer, a mmio tracer, sysprof support, improved webcam support, support for the Intel wifi 5000 series and RTL8187B network cards, a new ath9k driver for the Atheros AR5008 and AR9001 chipsets, more new drivers, and many other improvements and fixes. Full list of changes can be found here."
W00t lots of goodies in this one. So... about time to change from the 2.6.infinity_and_beyond scheme to something else. What say you? I think the 2.6.x should have been left behind when the scheduler changed.
So what kind of flash hardware is this for? Embedded devices, apparently. But maybe as flash storage becomes more common, more devices will support raw access?
Olympus' xD card format essentially specifies a direct connection between the NAND flash chips and its external interface.
It's weird and proprietary, yes. However, it's already being done, and there are arguments to be had for minimizing the amount of circuitry on the memory card itself. Interacting directly with Flash isn't as uncommon as you might think it, and can be of huge benefits for portable/embedded devices that require low power consumption.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Now every release is stable, and bugs are truly anomalies.
Or so the theory goes. Some of the early 2.6 releases were a bit dubious and I had my doubts when they announced there'd no longer be a development kernel but it seems to have settled in nicely now, don't know if it's developers making better code before including it in the kernel, Linus being stricter, closer cooperation wtih distros or more testing feedback but all the later ones have been quite good from what I understand. At any rate, the kernel isn't the most exciting part for me as it seems to have all the parts to run a nice desktop already - it's userspace drivers, X+extensions, Compiz and Gnome/KDE that make up most of my improvement wishlist...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Any chance that this will fix some of the ACPI problems with Linux? I recently had a terrible time trying to install Linux on a new Intel motherboard, mostly related to ACPI problems. I'm not blaming any of the Linux developers for this mess. I get the impression that ACPI is a disaster area and even Intel is unable to get it right on their own boards.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
If viruses were unique to Windows, we wouldn't have "root"kits. Instead, they'd be "Administrator"kits or perhaps "SYSTEM"kits.
You are clearly one of those arrogant assholes since you think there is such a thing as a pecking order in cyberspace.
As an arrogant asshole, you need to know you are one of the core reasons why Linux is only slowly gaining acceptance by the masses because you're too good to stoop to a "newbie's" level.
That being said...nah, you're still an arrogant asshole.
You should probably learn the difference between a root kit and a virus before you post to Slashdot in the future.
A fair number of people here actually have a clue, and thus do know the difference.
Might I recommend digg so that - in context - you sound like you have a clue?
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
It'd be the best April Fools day ever.
As far as I see, the real change is that what was the 2.4 and what was the 2.5 trees are now kept very close together. Active work (was 2.5) is done on the XX.YY.ZZ-preNUM kernels, it's all polished/troubleshot/reviewed in the XX.YY.ZZ-rcNUM kernels, and then it gets released. What was once 'stable tree' (2.4) work is now done on the XX.YY.ZZ.1 .2 .3 releases, and the developers move to XX.YY.ZZ+1-preNUM.
It seems to work quite well, and now you no longer have to meddle with dark arts and unsupported known-broken dev kernels to get recent hardware working. Win win all around IMO.
No more backporting/sideporting/up/down/leftporting to get current hardware code into current kernels, just all the dev community working on one codebase. Makes progress a lot more straightforward and apparently better/cleaner/less buggy.
The preceding comment is my own, and in no way construes an opinon of the Emperor of Mankind.
Right. Because it's impossible to do on Windows and Mac. You need to wait until the next version of the entire operating system comes out, and then pay for that.
So yes, please switch so you don't even have the option of doing what a Linux user mentions casually in conversation. Less is better, right?
(WTF?)
So? Download and build your own kernel..
Or get Windows or Mac and never have to hear that.
I bet you buy your LEGO preassembled too.
I bet he bought his TV and refrigerator preassembled too.
(don't flame me bro, I also use Linux all the time, but you asked for it ;-))
To be fair, if it was Windows or a Mac, adding support for a webcam would be as easy as installing a binary driver blob. I like Linux, but compiling drivers in to the kernel (and hence needing to compile it yourself, at times) has always been one of it's biggest annoyances.
Last time I looked about 9 months ago there were well over 3000 build options for the 2.6 kernel. Thats probably gone up a lot. I used to build my own kernels , anything up to 2.4 was do-able. But 2.6 is so complex with so many options which frankly mean nothing to me , that you would end up with a right dogs dinner thats far worse than anything the distributions could produce and you'll probably find you missed out some important functionality and/or dependency for something to work correctly and have to start again.
There's nothing wrong with wanting things to 'work' sometimes. Some people have better things to do in the evening than trying to get working. Especially when they spend their day fixing other people's problems.
Sometimes it's fun to mess about with stuff like that sure, but sometimes you just want to know that your hardware to work with your OS. That's part of the reason that I use OSX at the moment.
Linux is a lot better these days than 5 years ago obviously: wireless support, and now improved webcam support. Those were 2 of my major issues last time I tried to move to Linux as my primary OS. I used Skype for videocalling a lot back then. The whole thing is a virtuous cycle - better default support means more users, means more OSS developers, third party application and driver support, and so on.. I'm looking forward to the day I can use Linux to play the latest games or use the latest devices as soon as they are released, rather than having to wait a couple of years for WINE or driver support to catch up enough.
which is totally what she said
Because you did it in a bad way. Let's see how to explain this...
Every Linux user was a Linux newbie once. Being new to Linux does not make someone a bad person, nor does being confused by piles of jargon or the 20 different version numbers you have to face to understand the OS.
What you're doing is like going into a preschool and yelling, "Call that writing? You're such a n00b!" and then slapping the kids. It's not pleasant, necessary or acceptable, not even on the internet.
Besides, I'm not even sure the poster was even wrong, he may have just been using a weird terminology (Ubuntu 2.6.27 for the version of Ubuntu to use the 2.6.27 kernel).
In essence, you've not broken taboo, you've just been arrogant and uncivil. I suggest you break both habits forthwith.
All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.