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Open Source Operating Systems Upgrades Linux

Linux Kernel Switching To Linux v4.0, Coming With Many New Addons 264

Posted by timothy from the year-of-the-hurr-durr dept.
An anonymous reader writes Following polling on Linus Torvald's Google+ page, he's decided to make the next kernel version Linux 4.0 rather than Linux 3.20. Linux 4.0 is going to bring many big improvements besides the version bump with there being live kernel patching, pNFS block server support, VirtIO 1.0, IBM z13 mainframe support, new ARM SoC support, and many new hardware drivers and general improvements. Linux 4.0 is codenamed "Hurr durr I'ma sheep."
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Linux Kernel Switching To Linux v4.0, Coming With Many New Addons More

Linux Kernel Switching To Linux v4.0, Coming With Many New Addons

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  • Unprofessional (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So, I assume that a bunch of nitwits are going to show up and say that Linux is never going to be used professionally unless they get their naming together. Inevitably GIMP will be brought up as another example. (And perhaps even GNU.)

    Being that I work with distributors and customers from different nations I occasionally encounter people with not only names that are mildly funny but even obscene in my native language.
    Guess what the professionals do? They don't give a shit about the name because if you let t

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Linus Git message (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 23, 2015 @06:40AM (#49110349)

    .. after extensive statistical analysis of my G+ polling, I've come to
    the inescapable conclusion that internet polls are bad.

    Big surprise.

    But "Hurr durr I'ma sheep" trounced "I like online polls" by a 62-to-38%
    margin, in a poll that people weren't even supposed to participate in.
    Who can argue with solid numbers like that? 5,796 votes from people who
    can't even follow the most basic directions?

    In contrast, "v4.0" beat out "v3.20" by a slimmer margin of 56-to-44%,
    but with a total of 29,110 votes right now.

    Now, arguably, that vote spread is only about 3,200 votes, which is less
    than the almost six thousand votes that the "please ignore" poll got, so
    it could be considered noise.

    But hey, I asked, so I'll honor the votes.

    Source [kernel.org]

  • ... that 4.0 really is a big step up from 3.19 or is it simply the same amount of new stuff that would have gone into a 3.20 release anyway? Not that it really matters, Linux version numbers make about as much sense as Firefox ones these days.

    • They make more sense than most, as you get a new version every 3 months or so, which either increases the minor version number or occasionally as in this case the major version number. Patches come with the 3rd number. This easily makes more sense than almost all others, Java's numbering scheme seems like it was designed by Kafka, who knows where nvidia generate their driver numbers from.

      So you don't get particular milestones in minor or major version number changes, you get a degree of stability when new w

    • Re:So does this mean... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Trevelyan ( 535381 ) on Monday February 23, 2015 @08:40AM (#49110833)
      Big step from 3.19: No
      Same work as 3.20: Yes

      The reference point is 3.0. Kernel development is now 'inline' (as opposed to the old even=release, odd=development system). That means the minor number just gets bigger and bigger, and the kernel gets further and further away from what 3.0 was.

      This means at somepoint one should bump the major version number; the question is when? Linus has the answer for this: Basically when the minor number gets asthetically displeasing to him, he'll bump the major number and start the minor number again at 0.

      One might ask what will Linus do when the major number gets too big (e.g. >20) ?
      Others might ask, why don't they just use a year/calendar based version number? Like Ubuntu does.

      • Others might ask, why don't they just use a year/calendar based version number? Like Ubuntu does.

        Mark my words, Y2.1K is coming for Ubuntu.

  • Single Quote? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SpeedBump0619 ( 324581 ) on Monday February 23, 2015 @09:13AM (#49111069)

    All I'm wondering is whether there has ever been a single quote in the codename before? Virtually guaranteed to break someone's build system...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rdnetto ( 955205 )

      There hasn't [wikiwand.com], but I wouldn't expect it to matter. I don't believe the name is actually used anywhere (everyone just uses the version number), and its only defined in a makefile that's part of the kernel git repo. I'm not even sure if there's a rule for when it should be changed - I suspect it's merely whenever Linus feels like it.

  • Why not to 11! (Score:4, Funny)

    by HnT ( 306652 ) on Monday February 23, 2015 @09:19AM (#49111115)

    They should have just gone straight to eleven because, you know, it's one more than ten plus that way they could have one-upped OS X _AND_ Windows! (and it's a freaking prime on top of that!)

  • What happens when the major number gets too high? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If Linus' main motivation for bumping the kernel's version is because he doesn't like how high the minor version number is getting, and he keeps bumping the major number because of that, at some point, the major number is going to get as high as the minor number gets when he starts not liking how big the number is. So, presumably, he'll be unhappy with how high the major number is at that point, but what's he going to do? What do you do when you have Linux 19 and don't likely how high the number is? Change

    • linux seems to average a release about every 2 months. Which would mean a series every 40 months. To fill up series 4 through 19 inclusive would take about 16*40=640 months = ~ 53 years. According to google linus is currently 45 so that would make him 98.

      I would expect him to be at the very least retired and quite possiblly dead by then.

  • At least it didn't end up as the 'Butt-head memorial kernel'

  • Coming soon...

    https://lh5.googleusercontent.... [googleusercontent.com]

    (notice the kernel version)

    • Thankfully it reads 4.1.15-1.1381_SKYN12nnmp

      I will be watching ever so closely for this build number and will be running to my bomb shelter when it comes.

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