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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.
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.)
This slow it is not about the OS speed, it is about the new version publication.
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.
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.
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".
Eh. It seems to me that the Linux kernel is a mature product, thus dead one. Most of the significant changes are really addressing hardware changes, rather than implementing new concepts to enhance computing.
The Linux kernel is monolithic, meant for the hardware age of standalone computer. When it comes to optimizing cloud architectures or quantum computers, they will probably be best advanced with totally new implementations of OS.
When Linux dies, the people who only really care about the advancement of computing won't even notice they're not running linux. He'll be a footnote in history (which is a hell of a lot more than anyone else here can say).
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
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.