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Linux 4.15 Becomes Slowest Release Since 2011 (theregister.co.uk)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Linus Torvalds has decided that Linux 4.15 needs a ninth release candidate, making it the first kernel release to need that much work since 2011. Torvalds flagged up the possibility of an extra release candidate last week, with the caveat that "it obviously requires this upcoming week to not come with any huge surprises" after "all the Meltdown and Spectre hoopla" made his job rather more complicated in recent weeks. Fast-forward another week and Torvalds has announced "I really really wanted to just release 4.15 today, but things haven't calmed down enough for me to feel comfy about it."
Let's hope it doesn't also run slower than it did in 2011
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have backups to corrupt.
I was considering using Linux, but this update making it slower concerns me. Why is it slower? Perhaps they added in extra tracking and reporting features? Or perhaps a bitcoin miner to steal my computing resources? This is not a good look at all, especially with the vile profanities the Linux compmany founder spews for all to see, including impressionable children.
Obviously if Linus adopted an Agile strategy this wouldn't be an issue. He just needs to setup some sprints and things will work out.
Linus himself had to pull a hard stop and publicly excoriate Intel for their absolute non-fix of the Meltdown issue, so thats certainly not helping the 4.15 release. https://linux.slashdot.org/sto...
Good people go to bed earlier.
I prefer Linus's "try to get it right the first time" approach to releases versus the, unfortunately, too common "get it out the door as quickly as possible, we'll fix it later" approach employed by seemingly almost everyone else. (I'm looking directly at you, Microsoft. And Apple's getting a bit of stink-eye, too, given the flurry of patches for the dodgy current macOS and iOS versions.)
Please refresh my memory. Didn't Linus "marry" Rob Malda several years ago? Or was it someone else? I'm thinking Linus "married" Theo the Rat, but later had it annulled for irreconcilable differences.
I'm thinking that Linus isn't getting enough "meat" at home, and needs some "strange".
Does anyone know if the Kernel Page Table Isolation is the sole source of the slowdown. I believe this was mainly to address the Meltdown vulnerability, I'm not sure about Spectre. Booting Linux 4.15 with the "notpi" option would solved that "slowest kernel evar" problem/headline, admittedly at the price of leaving your system vulnerable.
When he dies we're all soooo fucked.
This is the slowest Linux kernel release process, not the slowest kernel itself.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
wait, msmash with a topic on point..
Bullshit, I dont beleive it.
its a puppet
she's too busy gnawing on BeauHD's cock, all of which for Coke..
Let's face it, how is this speed difference going to affect the largest majority of linux userbase ?
I, for one, am glad to see that someone is taking a more measured, thoroughly tested approach rather than the usual "OMG! Quick - flash new BIOSes, gimme new CPUs, install the latest kernel patches regardless of testing...." approach that has characterized the approach from "the technical community" so far.
Literally, this is the largest kludge since compilers had to support 16 bit chunks in extended addressing, and then 16/32 bit thunking back in the win 3.11/win9x era.
The fact that they managed to get it done in however many months it took, without it getting disclosed for so long is in itself impressive.
I just hope this will lead to internation governments demanding FRAND patent licensing on x86 so that second source hardware manufacturers with new designs can once again come to the table. If it wasn't for Intel's backstabbing in the late 486-PPro era, we would still have dozens of motherboard manufacturers and potentially more than 2 desktop x86 developers. Sure China/Taiwan is getting back in the boat NOW, but that doesn't really help spread the risk enough anymore.
If Linus is the king of the kernel, Greg Kroah-Hartman is the Prime Minister. He makes as many development decisions as Torvalds does, and he's ready to take over as BDFL.
All that extra time, and the slow story authors still didn't manage to rummage around in their duffel bag of virtuous clarity long enough to fish out the phrase "most protracted".
If Linus is the king of the kernel, Greg Kroah-Hartman is the Prime Minister. He makes as many development decisions as Torvalds does, and he's ready to take over as BDFL.
But Greg Kroah-Hartman is a self promoting ass who can't program or design who rides on the work of others and just does politics. Imagine Greg KH trying to lead a bug hunt like Linus does regularly, or make any kind of architectural decision. Linus is a brilliant engineer, Greg KH is the opposite. Would be a disaster, let's just hope Linus is careful with his scuba diving.
Would it be possible for me to get rid of the secuity measurements on my kernel with sysctl or a boot parameter?
GKH is a nice guy, but he ain't Linus/not at Linus' level. I won't say bad things about the guy.
You don't have to look far to find someone to say something bad about him. I don't know GKH well enough to criticize his skills. He does seem to get things done. I do think he's far too polite to take Linus' place. That's not saying a person needs to be a jerk to do the job. But you need to bluntly tell people no, regardless to how they may respond. I don't see GKH that way.