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21st December 2003

A NEW LINUX KERNAL - VERSION 2.6

Brian Grainger

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 brian@grainger1.freeserve.co.uk
 

A new Linux Kernal, version 2.6, has been released on the 17th December 2003 by Linus Torsvalds. While only being a couple of notches from the old release, 2.4 released in 2001, it is a significant upgrade.

Some of the things that are included in the new kernal are noted below.

  • Support for embedded systems (such as Personal Digital Assistants)

  • Support for larger servers

  • Support for hyperthreading

  • Increase in the allowed numbers of users/groups/processes and support for file systems up to 16 terabytes in size.

  • A lot of different changes that will manifest themselves as more responsive in a multi-tasking environment

  • Improvement in handling the different device types available now, such as hot pluggable devices, ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface), true plug and play.

  • USB 2 device support

  • Bluetooth support

  • Easier to write to IDE CD R/W drives

  • Filesystem extended to support extended attributes for greater security

  • Support for the disk partitioning system of Windows 2000 and later

  • Support for NTFS read. Support for NTFS write is being developed but not sure if it implemented in this release.

  • Support for FAT12, (used by some external devices such as MP3 players).

  • Support for many of the more esoteric external devices, including the X-Box gamepad.

  • Improved sound and video support includes support for TV cards and DVB devices (like a TV set top box).

  • Many improvements in the network protocol support area.

  • Stuff that I cannot understand!

Will there be problems with stuff written for the previous kernal? Possibly. The device driver model has changed so software which uses low level routines to access the hardware may need to change for the new kernel. Support for some obsolete devices has disappeared from the kernal as well.

Are we likely to see the new Kernal implemented in the Linux distributions soon? I guess the answer is not immediately. Reports suggest that Fedora Linux, (the successor to Red Hat Linux), will be first around April 2004. We shall have to wait and see.

 

 

 

 


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