Ashton Mills09 February 2007, 9:09 AM
Finally, after a long development cycle the 2.6.20 kernel has been released, and brings with it a number of new cool features. In the word of Linus' the new kernel is A lot of stuff. All over. And KVM.
Finally, after a long development cycle the 2.6.20 kernel has been released, and brings with it a number of new cool features. In the word of Linus' the new kernel is "A lot of stuff. All over. And KVM."
A kernel release is a special thing. Like looking into the eyes of a new born baby, a new kernel is a bundle of potential in the open source world. And so damn cute everyone wants to hug it. And then install it.
It's the only decent thing a Linux geek can do.
But I digress, what's new in .20? It's been a while in coming this (the changelog alone is
80,000 lines, and the focus according to Linus has been bug fixes, bug fixes and bug fixes. Oh, and a few incredibly cool new features.
In a
witty post on the LKML, Linus announced the 2.6.20 release with a piss-take of the importance of the new kernel versus the American Superbowl (*cough* as if there's
any competition). Give it a read. He also briefly mentioned some of the new features, which include:
* KVM -- Kernel-based Virtual Machine. While Linux has always had userspace applications for Virtualisation (like VMWare (which actually started on Linux long before Windows) and QEMU), KVM provides it at the kernel level. 2.6.20 includes the kernel component of KVM, which works with a userspace component to provide virtualised hardware to run container operating systems like Linux and Windows with minimal impact on performance. Something I plan to test RSN.
* PS3 support -- Initial Playstation 3 hardware support.
Yellowdog will be happy about this.
* Fault injection -- Allows developers to trigger faults in the kernel code and see how it responds that would be hard to test for otherwise in real-world environments.
* UDP-Lite -- An extension of UDP which will see benefit in wireless networks where packets go missing as par for the course. UDP is frequently used for video, audio and gaming, UDP-Lite will make this more resilient for unstable connections.
* Loads of driver updates -- from network and USB to DVB and SATA and more.
And before you can sneeze all the classic hardcore kernel patchsets have been updated with 2.6.20 as their base: Morph-Sources 2.6.20-morph1
'The First One!', 2.6.20-nicus1
'Gasoline & Frozen Orange Juice', and 2.6.20-viper1
'D'ya like dags?' among the first.
Naturally Gentoo is a playground for these sources, but as kernel sources they'll work and compile under any distribution just fine, so don't be afraid to go play.
And on that note, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do just that and break^H^H^H update my system with one of these spanky new kernels.
Disclaimer: Ashton is a member of 'Habitual Kernel Compilers Anonymous' or HKCA, a support group for those who habitually compile new kernel releases, especially the cutting-edge patchsets.
Disclaimer: The above disclaimer is fictitious. Well, at least the HKCA part.
 Linus Torvalds: Challenging priorities by releasing 2.6.20 with the Superbowl. Go the kernel! |