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Linux Kernel 4.4 LTS Officially Released
prisoninmate writes: January 10, 2016, will enter in the Linux history books as the day when the Linux kernel 4.4 LTS (Long-Term Support) has been officially released by Linus Torvalds and his team of hard working kernel developers. Prominent features of Linux kernel 4.4 LTS include 3D support in the virtual GPU driver, allowing for 3D hardware-accelerated graphics in virtualization guests, a leaner and faster loop device that supports Asynchronous I/O and Direct I/O, thus increasing the system's performance and saving memory, and support for Open-Channel Solid State Drives (SSDs) through LightNVM. Phoronix also took a look during the newest kernel's development cycle, and has an overview of 4.4's new features.
For a more complete changelog:
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux...
They matter on my desktop.
They matter on the desktops of all these administrations over the world that deploy linux operating system.
They matter in all the cloud infrastructure that rely on virtualization for load balancing.
They matter in the data center that are moving toward SSD for I/O.
They matter in 80% of the cell phones in the world that deploy the linux kernel.
Not a dumbass. Everyone had to learn everything they know at some point in their life.
Today is your day for kernel compilation! Yay!
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/BuildYourOwnKernel
80% of computers sold last year were SOCs (mobiles). Another x% were servers. So the desktop market is maybe 15% of the market. More Linux systems were sold last year than Windows systems and the trend is increasing each year.
With that said, who said Linux doesn't matter on the desktop? It matters on MY desktop, and has for 15 years. For most of the last 15 years, I worked for an information security company, so Microsoft software was not allowed on the company network. All desktops and laptops were Linux, no as were some firewalls, load balancers, most servers, etc.
Let me preface this by saying that I am not, by any means, a professional Linux administrator. I did, on the other hand, admin a bunch of servers as a part of my profession but those were mostly Unix and then Windows and then I hired competent professionals.
That said, I'd love to hate SystemD. I love me a good hate-fest. I keep pre-pitched torches at the ready and carry a fold-away assault pitchfork. I have various servers at home, some running on real server hardware, and a whole network of computers. (What self-respecting geek doesn't?) I have more VMs than I possibly need, doing things that I have no idea what I was thinking at the time, and am connected to my system in Maine via the most convoluted route possible. I have co-lo equipment that sits mostly idle and houses a few friend's sites and that's about it... It doesn't really do much of anything but, damn it, I have it!
You know what almost all these various computers have in common? Oh, they've got a whole host of distros on them - I'm not even sure I can quickly figure out which one is which any more. My topography looks like it was designed by a crack-addled five year old with admin privileges. I'm currently using a Live USB (Lubuntu), through a VPN, to my house, in a VM, to the 'net, through a VPN - and I'm skipping a few steps to keep it simple for you. This thing, for lack of a better word, shouldn't even run - never mind be stable. But this thing, with all these distros, has that one thing in common that I asked about. It's SystemD.
Yup. I guess they all have Linux in common but they sure as hell don't all have the same version of the kernel. So, there's that. But, they do all have SystemD (except for a few VMs - those are BSD, Minix, Indiana, and a few others but those don't actually get booted very often) for the most part. The all seem to work. Oh, I tried to hate SystemD. Yet, it's not caused me a single problem yet. I learned a few new comments, I've surely done something that should have broken it by now, and I've even read parts of the man pages.
Oh, I know it's not the Unix Way. Well, except it could be 'cause the Unix Way has exceptions. I know, it's got binary logging but - you can actually read those logs with a few different tools if you need to. I haven't needed to so I won't say that they work well but I'm told they work well enough. Yes, it does more than it needs to and it's not what we're used to. Meh, I'm okay with that - staying static is nice for some things and avoiding monolithic things is a good idea. Yet, it works. It works fine for me. I know, I am not everyone but I suspect the vast majority of the people complaining haven't actually used it. Even Hairyfeet complains and he's a Windows user - he's an ardent opponent of SystemD but he's probably never even tried a distro with it.
So, yeah, my pitchfork is starting to get rusty and needs to be sharpened again. My torches were lit but I just dunked 'em in water 'cause there didn't appear to be any monster that needed slaying. It's too bad, I had enough torches to go around. I want to hate it - I really do. It's not that I have some great skill that keeps it working - it works DESPITE my best efforts to screw things up. Oh, I screw up lots of things but it's not yet been the fault of SystemD nor has it prevented me from repairing my mistakes.
I dunno... I notice lots of lists of things people hate. I notice very few anecdotes of how it has harmed them. I've noticed even less actual compilations of data concerning it. If it's that bad then, well, we should have some data and someone would have compiled it. (The data, not systemd.) If a bumbling idiot, such as myself, can manage it - and not have a problem, then it seems only logical that smarter folks can figure it out, no? I mean, hell, I'm in a Live USB environment because I hosed GRUB again and I've not yet rebooted after fixing it. You'd think that, by now, SystemD would have been a problem for me. I kind of wish it had, then I could blame my mistakes on it.
What? I made a typo?!? It's
"So long and thanks for all the fish."