Linux 5.0 Released (phoronix.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Linus Torvalds has released Linux 5.0 in kicking off the kernel's 28th year of development. Linux 5.0 features include AMD FreeSync support, open-source NVIDIA Turing GPU support, Intel Icelake graphics, Intel VT-d scalable mode, NXP PowerPC processors are now mitigated for Spectre Variant Two, and countless other additions. eWeek adds: Among the new features that have landed in Linux 5.0 is support for the Adiantum encryption system, developed by Google for low power devices. Google's Android mobile operating system and ChromeOS desktop operating system both rely on the Linux kernel. "Storage encryption protects your data if your phone falls into someone else's hands," Paul Crowley and Eric Biggers, Android Security and Privacy Team at Google wrote in a blog post. "Adiantum is an innovation in cryptography designed to make storage encryption more efficient for devices without cryptographic acceleration, to ensure that all devices can be encrypted. Memory management in Linux also gets a boost in the 5.0 kernel with a series of improvements designed to help prevent memory fragmentation, which can reduce performance.

Comments

About the version number

[houghi]

But I'd like to point out (yet again) that we don't do feature-based releases,
and that "5.0" doesn't mean anything more than that the 4.x numbers started getting big enough that I ran out of fingers and toes.

Just so people understand that this is not something extremely special.

Re:About the version number

[aardvarkjoe]

It is special. It effectively pushes Linus out of the 4.x kernel branch and puts Greg in charge of yet another.

Linus was never working on some "4.x kernel branch," as there isn't a separate branch of kernel development for each major version. He has always worked on the updates for the next mainline kernel release, regardless of what he's calling it.

Re:They forgot the most important new feature: CoC

[MightyMartian]

Jesus Christ, pal. Just grow up already. Maybe you're the apple in your mother's eye, but out in the real world, you're just another whining little asshole who is not nearly as important as you like to imagine.