Linux Kernel to Fork?

Ninjy writes "Techworld has a story up about the possibility of the 2.7 kernel forking to accomodate large patch sets. Will this actually happen, and will the community back such a decision? "

Beginning of FreeLinux, OpenLinux and NetLinux?

[NoSuchGuy]

Is this the beginning of FreeLinux, OpenLinux and NetLinux?

What about SCOLinux or MSLinux?

Run, Chicken Little, Run!

[Minwee]

Oh no! If this sort of thing is allowed to happen then before long we will start seeing seperate kernel forks for people like Alan Cox, Andrea Arcangeli and Hans Reiser. It could even lead to every major Linux distribution applying their own patches to their own forked kernels.

Then where would we be?

Re: Run Windows? -- Just No Time

[Anonymous Coward]

As a person with Linux, I just don't have time to know everything about Windows to install it and keep it running. To me, the amount of time required to know Windows is only one of the things keeping me away. On top of this is all the spyware, viruses, constant severe security flaws, instability and slowdowns that just don't make it a viable system.

I imagine a future where I can buy a copy of Windows and it would work just like Linux. If this could be a reality today, I would maybe consider Windows for some non-technical people.

Re:Letter to Editor...

[Anonymous Coward]

Eventually, the 2.5.x development series will be "sprinkled with holy penguin pee" and become the 2.6.0 kernel

And THAT ladies and gentlemen is what seperates Linux kernel docimentation from the standard IBM documentation.

My response:

[Performaman]

What the fork?

Is Mr. Krill some sort of AI?

[Maljin Jolt]

I have read the article three times but still it looks to me like a random collection of irrelevant sentences unrelated to each other. Maybe it would make more sense if Paul Krill himself was written in lisp, or drank less if he's a real biological entity. This article looks like a random google cache copy and paste made in php.

Fork?!?!?

[KennyP]

I thought it was all about the spoon and that there is no spoon...

Now I'm cornfused!

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

So Some Want a Spoon....

[3seas]

....But fail to realize that the spoon is like MS windows without competition... grows fat, bloated and contains the manifestation of the user frustration function so as to make people need to upgrade the spoon....and plug up holes in it...

Forking is a better evolution process as forking is only part the the process. The other part is re-integration of new and wonderful things resulting from forking..

In other news...

[prash_n_rao]

In other news, the Linux Kernel will also "spawn" and "exec". Linus confirmed that the community will not have it any other way, so he *had* to do it.

Kernel forking

[YetAnotherName]

For the kernel itself to support fork(2), you'd have to have a meta-OS running the kernel, similar to a supervisor OS running as a user task in Mach [cmu.edu].

But I can see things deteriorating rapidly: someone will want vfork for kernels, someone else will implement kernel-to-kernel pipes, someone else will make vfork obsolete, someone will complain about kernels not getting SIGCHLDs from their child kernels, etc.

What? No, of I course I didn't read the fsck'n article ... not even the summary!

Re:From the article...

[chris mazuc]

Oh, man. You hit a button... I F-ING HATE PACKAGE MANAGERS UNDER LINUX. I try and update program X. Oh oh, dependency. Chase that down. That creates two more dependencies. Chase those down. Soon it cascades into a total nightmare.

ever used apt?

Re:From the article...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why windows will never make it in the 'real world'.

Re:About time....

[vwjeff]

I just want to know how crap like this makes it to Slashdot. You'd think Taco would know better.

You must be new here.

Re:From the article...

[bob beta]

Why is video hardware support getting stuffed into the Linux kernel? Is Linux finally making the transition that Windows NT did from 3.51 to 4.0?