[vox] 2.6.0 is out

[Rob Rogers]

On Wed, Dec 17, 2003 at 21:49:16PM -0800, Michael Wenk wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 December 2003 08:08 pm, Ryan Castellucci wrote:
> > Linux 2.6.0 is out.
> >
> > http://kernel.org/
> 
> After experiencing 2.4.0(or possibly 1) I think I'll wait for 2.6.10 or 
> somewhere around there.  However by all means let me know how it goes. :) 

Here's Andrew Morton's (the 2.6.x maintainer) response to Linus' release
announcement:
http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/1816

He specifically mentions that it may not be completely stable for
everyone yet.
    "The 2.6.0 kernel has undergone several weeks of stabilization and
we expect it to run well on server-class machines.

    "Desktops and laptops may have more trouble at this time because of
the much wider range of hardware and because of as-yet unimplemented
fixes for the hardware and BIOS bugs from which these machines tend to
suffer.

    "During the 2.6.0 stabilization period a significant number of less
serious fixes have accumulated in various auxiliary kernel trees and these
shall be merged into the 2.6 stream after the 2.6.0 release.  Many of these
fixes appear in Andrew Morton's "-mm" tree"

As far as personal experience, I compiled and test booted the
2.6.0-test9 kernel (latest before release was test11) and it looked
pretty good to me. I haven't been running it full time though.

If you're looking to check out 2.6, it's recommended you read the
"post-halloween document" for a list of what's new and what to expect in
2.6. It includes a list of known gotchas, things that don't work yet,
and depreciated features (no more devfs! :) )
http://www.linux.org.uk/~davej/docs/post-halloween-2.6.txt
(the document is only current as of test9 though)

Specifically, the module loader in the kernel has been reworked, and
you'll need a new set of utilities for modules. Also, the recommended
compiler is still 2.95.3. "When compiled with a modern gcc (Ie gcc 3.x),
2.6 will use additional optimisations that 2.4 didn't. This may shake 
out compiler bugs that 2.4 didn't expose."

Other intersting things include:
make xconfig/gconfig uses qt/gtk libraries respectively.
Preemption patches now in kernel.
Lots of threading improvements/speedups.
ALSA was merged into 2.6
AGP cleanups. Split into AGP core and per-chipset drivers.
Some changes to /proc. You may need a new version of procps.
framebuffer/console reworked. userspace tools (fbset) are still broken.
Some IDE cleanups, but still some breakage in the IDE code.
ide-scsi completely broken
But with a recent cdrecord, ide-scsi is no longer needed for burning CDs
Writing and ripping from CDs now uses DMA. Should be faster.
usbdevfs renamed to usbfs
ext3 gains indexed directory support.
Basic support for NFSv4
JFS and XFS filesystems merged into 2.6 
Improved ACPI driver
CPU frequency scaling (for Intel speedstep and AMD Powernow! among others)
Completely rewritten LVM2 (backwards compatible with LVM1)
Some security issues solved in 2.4 haven't been forward ported to 2.6 yet.
NSA Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) has been merged into 2.6.