Linux Kernel 2.6.29 Released 265
diegocgteleline.es writes "Linus Torvalds has released Linux 2.6.29. The new features include the inclusion of kernel graphic modesetting, WiMAX, access point Wi-Fi support, inclusion of squashfs and a preliminary version of btrfs, a more scalable version of RCU, eCryptfs filename encryption, ext4 no journal mode, OCFS2 metadata checksums, improvements to the memory controller, support for filesystem freeze, and other features. Here is the full list of changes."
Re:Filesystems in the kernel! (Score:5, Insightful)
Filesystems in the kernel, savages!
Give it five to ten years. Linus will have to move all that bloat out of the kernel. I wonder if he will start again from minix 3?
Re:Filesystems in the kernel! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a relative newbie, but don't you need some filesystem support in the kernel so you can load the modules off the disk?
Like say you had three non-swap partitions: / /boot /movies
/boot is EXT2
/movies is something else, like XFS, ZFS, ReiserFS
/ is EXT4
Wouldn't you need EXT4 support in the kernel so you could load the rest of the OS? Then you could use whatever (possibly even a userland module) to mount /movies...
Someone please enlighten me, I don't know much about the kernel.
Re:Dataloss under Ext4: Obama to blame. (Score:4, Insightful)
After the Ext4 [launchpad.net] dataloss [slashdot.org] discussion, [slashdot.org] and the "Don't fear the fsync()" [thunk.org] posts, I don't want to hear about Ext4, fsync(), or data loss again.
Re:Filesystems in the kernel! (Score:5, Insightful)
Not everyone wants an initrd/initramfs to be 'required' to boot. Options, always preserve your options.
Re:Drivers??? (Score:4, Insightful)
What I find really weird is that on Windows, the default paper size is always "letter", when most people use A4.
Not in the U.S.
Re:Drivers??? (Score:1, Insightful)
> I just plug in my printer, use the add printer wizard, select model, various sharing methods - no stupid driver installation that installs a bunch of bloatware.
The last two versions of Ubuntu that I installed, I did not even have to do that much. After first installation, I just turned the USB printer on. Ubuntu detected it, identified the correct make and model, installed all the drivers and set it as the default printer (since there wasn't already one set). Since during the installation I had set the timezone to Australian CST, Ubuntu had also set the localization correctly, and so consequently the default paper size was correctly set to A4.
Re:Filesystems in the kernel! (Score:4, Insightful)
A database management system is nothing but a fancy filesystem with structured files, yet they are often used in servers and perform just fine.
Re:I have a dream..... (Score:5, Insightful)
[sigh]
This again?
For the last time, Gnome and KDE are not going to merge! And we don't want them to merge! Healthy, friendly competition is good!
A Single-Unified-Linux-Desktop is neither desirable nor necessary for "world domination" or even "the year of the Linux Desktop"
Re:Access Point Wi-Fi? (Score:3, Insightful)
Ummm I'm pretty sure thats the ability to act as a wifi access point, which windows can't do yet.
you can do that on windows too, but like on linux you can't set the wifi card in master mode with all drivers, some support it and some don't
for example I have the wifi-ap edition of an asus mb that can do that
Then what happens to XFCE? (Score:2, Insightful)
Windowmaker? IceWM? enlightenment?
These are available, but apparently the ONLY thing keeping "Linux from the Desktop" is that KDE and GNOME exist.
Nah, I don't buy it.
When they are merged, you'll be complaining that there's KNOMDE and WindowMaker and that you won't get "Linux on the Desktop" until they are merged.
Then WMKNOMDE and XFCE will stop there being "Linux on the Desktop".
And when there is only one desktop, it will be that it's the wrong one.
And when it's the right one, it'll be that GIMP is a stupid name for a program.
And when it's named something else...
Re:The most important missed out feature (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I have a dream..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Gnome's policy of (pseudoquote) "there's one best way to do it and we don't want to confuse the users with too many config options" was extremely frustrating for many KDE users and devs, particularly the power users that /like/ to configure the desktop until it uniquely fits them like a glove, while likewise, the KDE "if it can be configured, different people are going to want different things, so let's expose every single possible configuration option to the user in the GUI" was extremely frustrating to many Gnome users and devs, particularly those who just want it to work, damit, because they have work to do.
so the best thing to do, is give a fully configurable system, and ship with a default set of configurations. Choose one at install: 'desktop', 'server', 'custom' or 'mom' configuration options.
dumbing things down because you think your users don't want options is patronising and stupid. even the ones who 'just want it to work' will occasionally disagree with a choice you made for them.
I think multiple desktop environments is still a good thing, but a unified development environment would be even better. That's my problem with Gnome v KDE - not the desktop per se, but the 2 different ways of developing GUIs. If there was just the one, it'd be easier to do the development, things would fit nicer together, they'd probably be better support and facilities for the development. This is one thing Microsoft got right (along with its GUI style guidelines). Think of this like common standards, you can build any website, but you do it using a common set of html primitives; or you can build any linux distro, but you do it with a common kernel.
US+Canada dominate the anglophone world (Score:3, Insightful)
"Most people" don't live in the US.
Most people living in English-speaking industrialized countries live in the United States. Add up the population of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and the two-thirds of Canada that isn't Quebec, and you still have less than half the U.S. population. (This might change somewhat once India industrializes further.) Besides, Canada uses US Letter paper too [about.com]. So if you publish one edition of a desktop environment for the English language, and not separate editions for North America and the Commonwealth, it might be fair to default to North American settings.
Re:I have a dream..... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's an imagined tragedy. Yes, there is a lot of duplication of effort between the two camps. But tasking their combined developers with a single desktop system (GDE? KNOME?) is unlikely to make it twice as good, or get features completed twice as fast. Instead, it'll probably lead to the reverse.
Re:Drivers??? (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope you don't mean to imply that the US is slowly converting to metric. We are not and probably never will. I learned the metric system from a young age because we were taught that it would eventually be the standard in the US as it is elsewhere but I haven't seen any real change in this direction. Metric usage is usually reserved for science and mathematics in the US, but common measurements will never standardize on metric, it's too ingrained in our system and culture.
Re:The most important missed out feature (Score:3, Insightful)
Starving girls with swollen bellies aren't on the edge of extinction.
Neither are Tasmanian devils. According to wikipedia the Tasmanian devil is merely endangered [wikipedia.org]. While the Vancouver Island Marmot [marmots.org] is is critically endangered [wikipedia.org].
Plus the marmot [marmots.org] is cuter than the Tasmanian devil [wikimedia.org]. Maybe someone can talk Mark Shuttleworth into a Marmot release of Ubuntu. Marginalized Marmot anyone?