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Linux 6.7 Kernel Released

34 points by jlpcsl 3y ago

workfromspace 3y ago
Nice to see many driver updates as usual, but I have a question: Why not separate the drivers from the rest of the kernel? Even better, maybe to make it reusable/portable for non-linux distros?
- phendrenad2 3y ago
  Actually, the kernel maintainers are very against this idea, there's even a mini-rant included in the kernel source: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/process/stable-api-nonsense.rst https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/... In my opinion, the rationale in this document is mostly post-hoc justification for the natural momentum of the kernel team to continue the Linux project exactly as it has been for 3 decades, essentially a Unix clone, with the exact same design decisions that went into Unix, even the unconscious ones (such as no thought for the utility of driver modularization).
chamoda 3y ago
Notable changes. - The Bcachefs file system is now in the kernel Bcachefs is a next-generation of CoW (Copy-on-Write) file system for Linux (similar to zfs or btrfs with improvements). It has support for snapshots, compression, encryption, caching, replication and more. - New Futex API Futex (Fast User-space Mutex) is kernel system call operate directly on user-space to improve performance of locking mechanisms inside programs. Set of significant incremental improvements made to clean up the Futex API. - Exceptions for BPF virtual machine Did you know that there's a virtual machine called BPF that runs inside kernal space to safely execute dynamic programs with JIT compilations? BPF (Berkeley packet filter) has been getting more and more improvements over the years and exceptions was the latest improvement to the language. - Itanium (IA-64) architecture removed for the kernel IA-64 which was Intel's attempt for 64 bit processor architecture which was completely overshadowed by AMD's x86-64 is now completely gone from the Linux kernel.

34 points by jlpcsl 3y ago

Nice to see many driver updates as usual, but I have a question: Why not separate the drivers from the rest of the kernel? Even better, maybe to make it reusable/portable for non-linux distros?

phendrenad2 3y ago
Actually, the kernel maintainers are very against this idea, there's even a mini-rant included in the kernel source: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/process/stable-api-nonsense.rst https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/... In my opinion, the rationale in this document is mostly post-hoc justification for the natural momentum of the kernel team to continue the Linux project exactly as it has been for 3 decades, essentially a Unix clone, with the exact same design decisions that went into Unix, even the unconscious ones (such as no thought for the utility of driver modularization).

chamoda 3y ago

Notable changes. - The Bcachefs file system is now in the kernel Bcachefs is a next-generation of CoW (Copy-on-Write) file system for Linux (similar to zfs or btrfs with improvements). It has support for snapshots, compression, encryption, caching, replication and more. - New Futex API Futex (Fast User-space Mutex) is kernel system call operate directly on user-space to improve performance of locking mechanisms inside programs. Set of significant incremental improvements made to clean up the Futex API. - Exceptions for BPF virtual machine Did you know that there's a virtual machine called BPF that runs inside kernal space to safely execute dynamic programs with JIT compilations? BPF (Berkeley packet filter) has been getting more and more improvements over the years and exceptions was the latest improvement to the language. - Itanium (IA-64) architecture removed for the kernel IA-64 which was Intel's attempt for 64 bit processor architecture which was completely overshadowed by AMD's x86-64 is now completely gone from the Linux kernel.