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."

Comments

In more ways than one?

[subk]

Let's hope it doesn't also run slower than it did in 2011

Re:In more ways than one?

[subk]

Yes, that's exactly what I think. To that end, I expect a kernel from today should perform better than or equal to a similarly configured kernel from yesterday, and indeed that has been the trend. While the Linux kernel has grown in some areas, it has gotten leaner in others.

Re:In more ways than one?

[TheRealMindChild]

Do you remember the move from 2.4 to 2.6? 2.6 all of a sudden made those "light" linux distros for old computers unusable in a large amount of cases.

Re:In more ways than one?

[thegarbz]

Yes. Unusably FAST! We covered this in quite a bit of detail on the Slashdot of old. The summary is quite good with it's description: 2.6 kernel "creams" the 2.4

Re:In more ways than one?

[kyrsjo]

Wasn't that mainly about size? AFAIK 2.4 was the last that could fit comfortably on a floppy disk.

Easy fix

[110010001000]

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.

Re:Easy fix

[freeze128]

Imagine how Linux Kernel development will progress once Linus steps down. He isn't going to live forever, you know. I doubt that his replacement would be as tenacious.

Re:Easy fix

[110010001000]

He could be replaced by a seasoned Certified Scrum Master (SCM). You just have to make the SCM is Certified by http://www.scrumalliance.org./ Otherwise it will just be some crazy process nut who is more concerned about the process than the final product. You might think that anyone can write and release software, but you really need to be certified. You just can't have uncertified regular people releasing software! That would be insane!

Im sure Intel isnt helping.

[nimbius]

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...

Get it right the first time

[Anonymous Coward]

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.)

Re:Get it right the first time

[umghhh]

In our house we release when it compiles, does this qualify for 'first time right' or 'it wobbles trough the door' strategy?

Title is misleading; slowest PROCESS since 2011

[Khopesh]

This is the slowest Linux kernel release process, not the slowest kernel itself.

Most of us don't need that much speed on nix.

[mohsel]

Let's face it, how is this speed difference going to affect the largest majority of linux userbase ?

Re:Most of us don't need that much speed on nix.

[Barefoot Monkey]

The title is somewhat misleading. Linux isn't running any slower than before; it's just that the developers have taken longer to release version 4.15 than they have for any other version since 2011, partly due to all of Intel's recent mishaps. This doesn't actually affect anyone much at all (unless you've been anxiously awaiting some or other new feature) - it's just an observation that some might find interesting.

Good!

[GerryGilmore]

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.

Greg Kroah-Hartman already runs most development

[raymorris]

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.

most unprotracted

[epine]

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".

Re:I worry

[slashdot_commentator]

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).