Linux 2.6.37 Released

diegocg writes "Version 2.6.37 of the Linux kernel has been released. This version includes SMP scalability improvements for Ext4 and XFS, the removal of the Big Kernel Lock, support for per-cgroup IO throttling, a networking block device based on top of the Ceph clustered filesystem, several Btrfs improvements, more efficient static probes, perf support to probe modules, LZO compression in the hibernation image, PPP over IPv4 support, several networking microoptimizations and many other small changes, improvements and new drivers for devices like the Brocade BNA 10GB ethernet, Topcliff PCH gigabit, Atheros CARL9170, Atheros AR6003 and RealTek RTL8712U. The fanotify API has also been enabled. See the full changelog for more details."

Re:Kernel locking

[Yossarian45793]

For those that aren't aware, the BKL (big kernel lock) hasn't caused any issues except purist angst for a very long time now. All of the performance critical kernel code was fixed to use fine grained locking years ago. This change is just to satisfy the people who are offended by the architectural ugliness of the BKL. In terms of performance and everything else that matters, the removal of the BKL has absolutely no impact.