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Operating Systems Linux

Arch Linux Is Now Officially Powered by Linux Kernel 4.7, Update Your Systems 54

Marius Nestor, writing for Softpedia: After a few weeks from its official release, it finally happened, Linux kernel 4.7 has just landed in the stable software repositories of the popular, lightweight and highly customizable Arch Linux operating system. Linux kernel 4.7 is the most stable and advanced kernel branch, and only a few GNU/Linux distributions have adopted since its launch on July 24, 2016. It's still marked as "mainline" not "stable" or "longterm" on the kernel.org website, which means that it didn't receive a maintenance update at the moment of writing this article. As for its new features, Linux kernel 4.7 comes with an updated AMDGPU graphics driver with support for AMD Radeon RX 480 GPUs, LoadPin, a brand new security module that ensures all modules loaded by the kernel originate from the same filesystem, and support for upgrading firmware using the EFI "Capsule" mechanism. Linux kernel 4.7 also marks the sync_file fencing mechanism used in the Android mobile operating system as stable and ready for production, implements support for generating virtual USB Device Controllers in USB/IP, supports parallel directory lookups, and introduces the "schedutil" frequency governor, which is faster and more accurate than the current ones.
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Arch Linux Is Now Officially Powered by Linux Kernel 4.7, Update Your Systems

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  • I use Arch (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Thursday August 11, 2016 @03:20PM (#52686397) Homepage Journal

    But I don't see the point of this being on /.

    • by geek ( 5680 )

      But I don't see the point of this being on /.

      There isn't one. Seriously, I can't recall the last kernel update that made me go "wow gotta have that"

      Really isn't news worthy

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      How do you know if somebody uses Arch Linux?

      Don't worry, they'll tell you.

  • lightweight? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rubycodez ( 864176 ) on Thursday August 11, 2016 @03:36PM (#52686489)

    oh that means it doesn't have systemd?

    • Yes it does have systemd and here's the person who made that call on Reddit saying why he made that call. [reddit.com]

      Also we have three out of six digits in common in our user IDs, that doesn't happen often for me and I have issues because that's the first thing I noticed about your comment. Cheers!

      • Nope, in the first post on that reddit is only what he describes is what he feels were the shortcomings of Arch previous init system. The real reason for choosing systemd is below:

        So why systemd over all those alternatives?

        First, we don't know if the other systems were really alternatives (at least I don't know).

        The answer is boring: Systemd solved many problems, it was there, it worked and we already used many of its tools in our initscripts at the time. There is no specific reason why we did not use $WHATEVER over systemd.

        So, basically, they chose systemd just because they were using it. No evaluation of advantages/disadvantages, impact assessment, nothing.

  • My main computer is an Intel Skylake laptop and 4.7 does seem to run much better on it than its predecessor. Wuv me some Arch.

    • What are you noticing? I'm curious as to why a kernel update could have such a noticeable impact on performance these days. I was under the impression that the kernel didn't change big parts these days. Maybe it's the frequence governor mentioned in the summary?
      • No idea to be honest, but my desktop feels way more snappier than before, plus power usage has gone down - it runs cooler and the battery lasts longer.

  • Why this makes the news? Short explanation because every poster before asked
    Arch users fells the urge to speak about their distro, they re very vocal about it.

    I ll be downvoted to hell. But yes, arch users think themselves superior like in "arch is the first distro to ..." , "arch power users..." , "popular, lightweight and highly customizable Arch Linux". Digging a bit more you ll realise
    - It s mostly 1-2 years old linux users, amazed that they can use a command-line and paste wiki infos into it. Congratu

  • a linux distribution ships a new kernel release ...

    Wayne?

As you will see, I told them, in no uncertain terms, to see Figure one. -- Dave "First Strike" Pare

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