Slashdot Mirror


Linux 4.0 Kernel Released

An anonymous reader writes "The Linux 4.0 kernel has been released. Linux 4.0 brings many features including live patching, Radeon DisplayPort Audio, RadeonSI fan control improvements, new OverlayFS functionality, Intel Quark SoC support, and a heck of a lot more. Linus's release announcement reads in part: "So I decided to release 4.0 as per the normal schedule, because there really weren't any known issues, and while I'll be traveling during the end of the upcoming week due to a college visit, I'm hoping that won't affect the merge window very much. We'll see. Linux 4.0 was a pretty small release both in linux-next and in final size, although obviously 'small' is all relative. It's still over 10k non-merge commits. But we've definitely had bigger releases (and judging by linux-next v4.1 is going to be one of the bigger ones)."

9 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Moving too fast - boycott the Linux Kernel! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Four major versions in 25 years, who does Linus think he is? He's drunk with power!

  2. Re: Is it as secure as OpenBSD's kernel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You do understand that Shellshock was not a Linux vulnerability, right?

  3. Re:Arbitrary major version jumps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Our sales department decided in our contracts a (totally arbitrary) policy to "support" only the last 3 major versions of our products. This means we periodically update the major version just so we can stop supporting the older versions even if there are not any major new features.

  4. Coincidence? by ckatko · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's kind of funny that Microsoft has also decided to move their Kernel from version 6.1.62.6.2.7.21.1.6.2.2.000.02.432.523.253.532 to 10.0 in Windows 10.

    I wonder if some useless managers got wind of Linux changing theirs, and made their developers change the number.

    "Dear busy senior developers: I just found out Linux made a bigger number. Why can't we? Why are you wasting our time fixing bugs? Add this feature I just heard about today! It's very important.

    Sincerely,
    --Scott Miller"

  5. Re:2.6.32 anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I suppose I should start looking to upgrade my old Centos 6.6 box. I'm running a 2.6.32 kernel on that. I've thought about upgrading to the new Centos 7,0 but I'm not sure I want to fuck with it. The current system I have works perfectly and does exactly what I need it to do.

    Well Centos 7 will cure that. It's based on systemd.

  6. Re:Is it as secure as OpenBSD's kernel? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's the list, though a few are mis-filed (the arbitrary code execution from this year is actually in Flash, no idea why it appears here), but most of the privilege elevation ones from this year and most of the arbitrary code execution vulnerabilities are real (though several seem to be in Logitech HID drivers).

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  7. Re:My kingdom for an easy software reinstall tool. by turbidostato · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Unfortunately the only technique I ever found (and I've forgotten what it was at this point) generated a text file listing *every* package installed on the machine"

    Unfortunately I fail to see where's the problem.

    "a list nigh guaranteed to bork a machine if I tried to import it all on a different OS version"

    Not my experience.

    Now, my experience:
    1) Debian-based: I don't reinstall that often (now that I remember, my current setup goes in time about 10 years or maybe more).
    2) Debian-based when cloning a machine: when it's been the same release, no problem at all. When the receptor is a different version (newer) I installed a minimal system and then applied the package list. It might fail on some package disappearing or changing names (usually only a few) and then it's a matter to see what failed and act accordingly. Worst case scenario, I had to extract a list of the (partial) setup on the new machine and diff old/new.
    3) Red-Hat based: yes, they are not so great at upgrading in place so I had to resort to the trick in point two. It was a bit longer and required more than one iteration but far from a drama.

    "And good luck sorting out the 10% of user software from the umpteen dozen pages of semi-cryptically named packages."

    From time to time (I mean months or even years, here) I spend no more than an hour looking at the installed package list. I know what most of the packages do, for the minority I don't know, I read its description as provided by the package manager. If still no clue, I try to unistall it and see what reverse-dependencies are going to be unistalled, which always made clear what was happening. Not a big problem either.

    Oh! by the way, a few seconds of google search showed me how to list manually installed packages both for debian-based and redhat-based systems so it seems your concern was not so much a problem even for you as to expend even a minute looking for a solution.

  8. variation in user land and "GNU/Linux" by DrYak · · Score: 3, Informative

    In practice Bash is part of most Linux installations.

    Even in the realm of "GNU/Linux" not everybody uses bash (some use zsh, for exemple).

    And that's only the portion of users running an actual "GNU" userland.

    Then you have the embed world using Busybox (with uClib, etc.) and co for the userland (which has its own simplified shell).
    And then you have Android (which runs a completely different user land by Google, like Bionic for a C library, a different message passing bus, and most of the things usually handled by deamon running in userland, handled by java-like code on a java-like VM).

    And the other way arround: you have other Unice (OS X, various *BSD) which obviously do not run Linux kernel, but do run bash.
    OS X, for example, was affected by bash.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  9. Re:Wine runs Windows desktop apps by armanox · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You mean you're not using Photoshop for UNIX?

    --
    I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.