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Kernel Feature freeze in 2 weeks? 122

Posted by HeUnique from the kernel-2.4-is-coming dept.
According to an email written by Linus, "a feature freeze in about two weeks is the current plan", so people who wants their patch included (a hint to ISDN dev. guys) should work/write faster. I guess kernel 2.4 may be out this fall after all.
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Feature freeze in 2 weeks? More

Feature freeze in 2 weeks?

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  • Early releases... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Yes, but what is more embarassing.. having your fresh new untested kernel go down or your boxers? :-)
  • So the last major update took 2 1/2 years... Yeah, that's a long time, but there were TONS of changes... 2.2 is far ahead of 2.0... 2.4 won't be quite as big a leap. I would like to see PnP, USB, TCP/IP fixes all working before a 2.4 though....

    They only thing I can think of, is that maybe they concentrating on stability now... add a few features, stabilize, lather, rinse, repeat... It could also be that they're saving 3.0 for the major changes.. whatever those might be.

    Man.. I still know of boxes running on 2.0.35 (with currently 309 days uptime)... I started on 1.3.something... Our little baby's all grown up!


  • Wow, warm boxers! That sounds like a great idea....hmmm....

    -David
  • I don't think you understand the term 'feature freeze' very well. The whole point is that nothing new gets added so it can be better stabilised.
  • Send your patch to the linux-kernel mailing list [mailto] just saying "Hey here's a patch against Linux 2.x.y that autodetects Foo Inc.'s Bizbaz XT controller card." Unless your patch is really big (why would it be?); then just give a link to a website or something to your patch. In case you're not on the linux-kernel mailing list, the short summary of how to make a good patch is:
    $ diff -urN {original-source-tree} {your-source-tree} >/tmp/linux-patch

    Alternatively, look in the .c file for the XT controller and find an appropriate email address if you don't want to broadcast your patch to everyone on the lkml. Hope this helps.
  • God help me, I'm still running kernel 1.1.59 on one of the machines here at work as a UUCP gateway. It's not heavily loaded, but the thing refuses to crash - current uptime is over 200 days, and that was only due to an air con. failure that tripped our UPS over the weekend.


    Rob
  • Support for a full, robust journalling filesystem would be worthy of a major number increment (Linux 3.0). Filesystems (especially modern journalling ones) are *very* complicated and *very* fundamental to the system. If your filesystem only works correctly 99.9% of the time, your system is *wholly* unusable.

    The changes that you mention are in the planning stages, but will take a very long time to implement and an equally long time before they are deemed "stable". 2.4 is supposed to be a quick cycle, so such changes do not fit in its scope.

    As for what *is* new in 2.4, Pranevich put together a nice piece called the "Wonderful World of Linux 2.4" (just as he did for Linux 2.2). It is on Linux Today, and I suggest you check it out.

    --Lenny
  • I wish I had one of those Neuralizer's From Men in Black. I'd flash my Boss.

    "Huh? You won't give me raise?!?



    Uh, yeah, I'll take that raise and the Promotion. Oh? and we're not installing NT?? Linux, Firm-wide you say???

  • While we're on the subject of badly needed pronouns, I'd like to add an addendum for the legitimization of "ain't" as a contraction of "am not." We've got second and third person, singular and plural, covered in all applicable tenses. It's time we spoke out for #1.

    I'm mad as hell, and I ain't going to take it any more!
  • A few questions about kernel development:

    a) when do they decide that the next version should be for instance 2.4 instead of 3.0?

    b) what constitutes a feature freeze? When everything is considered stable? if everything is stable, why do they keep adding new versions that must be debugged?

    Just curious, Ive always wondered things like this ;)

    -Dave

    --
    Dave Brooks (db@amorphous.org)
    http://www.amorphous.org
  • When you're -truly- speaking globally, why don't you just say 'In Q4'? The fourth Quarter. Then there's -never- any confusion with seasons. Whoever thought of using seasons as a timeframe should be shot. Seasons are for -farmers-.


    Comics:
    Sluggy.com [sluggy.com] - It rocks my nads.
  • Depending on which of the Big Two dictionaries you ask, that *has* been a valid contraction for a few years now.
    --GAck
  • What, in particular is wrong with X? I use even some of its more obscure features on a regular basis. What I would like to see in kernel graphics support is KGI, with good device support, and then XGGI on the userspace side, but that probably won't happen until GGI is ready.
  • If it was AIX, I hope they fired those mathematicians. AIX is *far* from bugfree.

    Brian
  • Why? Because they cant program.

    Well, in that case, please show us exactly how its done, Mr AC. Obviously you know what you're talking about, don't you.
  • silly man,

    everybody knows that transmeta is just a front for the aliens. they are in constant contact with the motherbase back on Transmeta Prime, and are busily building a spacetime portal in the basement. You laugh now, and engage in idle speculation about these "patents", but see who's laughing when they pour through their portal and enslave us all. :-)

    --sam
  • Looks like Linus learned from the last development cycle, where it took 2 1/2 years to get a new stable version out the door.

  • just wishful thinking, really. I've got a Yamaha PCI Soundcard, an XG-DG or some such...sounds GREAT in Window$, but the only support via Linux is thru OSS from 4front. So for now, I'm stuck with my SB16 PNP. Oh, anyway, I'd like to see more support for multimedia hardware. Like my card. Esp. my card (:
    Northeast USA Computer Show Schedule
    http://www.vermontel.com/~vengnce/shows

  • Actually, a feature freeze will probably help stability.

    Instead of spending more time adding new features than on refining existing code, the kernel folks will spend more time on polishing the code, having stopped adding new features (the word "stop" being a bit relative).

    That would give, at the very earliest, assuming that fall in California starts around the 20th of September, about a month of bugfixing. And that's a minimum.

    It doesn't seem like such a hurry from where I sit. *shrug*

    --
    QDMerge [rmci.net] -- data + templates = documents.
  • But, isn't Webster an American dictionary?

    The plot grows thicker and thicker...

  • ... I see that no other than Linus himself wrote:

    In short, people who think they have major requirements had better get their act together. That means that if ISDN people actually want to try to get into a real release one of these years, they don't have all that much time to futz around any more.

    Hm. I don't know if Tove will let you get near him with a clue stick.


    ----------
    mphall@cstone.nospam.net

  • Personally all the hardware on my computer is supported well (except for an old scanner I had). Unless there is a speed improvement or memory management change I will stick with 2.2.10!


    ---------------------------
    ^_^ smile death approaches.

  • Kernel 2.4

    XFree 4.0

    XFS

    IA-64



    Some days it's good to be alive.
    --

  • I think KDE 2.0 is a long way off. When it gets here it should be really nice. With KParts and KOffice, it really sounds like something that will be very comprable to windows.
  • Uhm...that's the point of a feature freeze. No new features, only bug fixes. Btw, if you think that the kernel programmers can't code, I'd love to see what you can do.
  • A parallel question, does anyone have any idea when we're going to see 2.2.11? 2.2.11-pre1 is on the kernel mirrors, but I'm not keen on running a devel kernel on my system...
  • gee there are some bugs in 2.2 that should be fixed first. I hope that they still support 2.2 and make improvements to it and do not just plan on stopping at 2.2.11 or 2.2.12. What is the rush for 2.4? why not just clean up 2.2 or is that not possible?
  • I'm no expert on sales and such, but it sure would be nice if we could introduce 2.4 with a lot of enterprise computing improvements like a journalling fs and better support for more than 4 processors. I think the word on these features would spread more more easily if they were in press releases for 2.4.0 (on wired, cnn, and other bigger news sites and mags) rather than appearing in 2.4.12 so that only current Linux enthusiasts would notice it on freshmeat.

    Sure, we want to look like we are developing quickly, but people will ask "What's new in 2.4?" What will we be able to say?

  • I was thinking that me or I are first person. First person is in reference to yourself, second person is in reference to the person or people you are talking to, and third person is in reference to somebody else.

    Of course, some people could make the argument that y'all is singular second person, and all y'all is plural second person.

    I'm not one of those people. I'll stick with you and y'all

  • Fall doesn't start in California until about mid October :)
  • The OED has citations for both back to the 14th century, which kind of pre-dates any American English usage. It states that 'fall' was short for 'the fall of the leaf', which probably explains why people still say 'in the fall' rather than 'in fall', while 'in autumn' is fine.
  • Good thing he posted as AC, not many ppl would want to get all the flame mail from criticizing Linus.

    Since you're so big on logic... Isn't it sad that when someone says "that's a bad attitude" the first response was "well Mr. Authority said it!" and that's supposed to be a valid argument?

    A management mistake is just that; no matter who makes it. Management may not be #1 but it matters.

    I doubt very much that most /. readers have enough background to make the judgement that the ISDN ppl are or are not "futzing around" but from what's been presented isn't it about time that they synch their schedule up with the next kernel?
  • GGI does look impressive... I was amazed how fast a windowed ggi doom ran (doom legacy compared to lxdoom)... kind of like (don't hit me) DirectX for linux.

    Hey, just get Mesa, GGI, GII, and a 3d audio standard (GAI?) built into your standard distribution and Linux will kick ass on the desktop/gaming end of things.

    After that just a little tweaking on Wine and linux will be a bit of nice packaging away from being a masterful competitor in desktop land...
    (ie ppl who know nothing about computers will be using linux)
  • That's exactly my point and the post you were responding to was either not ad homonym or your complaint of ad homonym against the AC was off topic (and therefore feeding a troll).

    Your post can reflect a value judgement on the point; you named an informal fallacy in an attempt to refute that point. By presuming that such a method of management is "good enough for our/my purposes" either you must either feel that a malliable attitude is wasted on your workforce (which is still poor management) or that you do know enough about the topic to judge the AC's criticism of Torvalds' email.

    My point about the "Mr. Authority" comment was that since you're so concerned with logical form that you'll identify an ad homonym why didn't you identify this other Informal Fallacy? It was the entire point of the AC's post!

    I believe the rest is self explanatory.

    ... and maybe the ISDN ppl were ignorant of the deadline. It would suck to expect 6 months to finish a project and all of a sudden get a memo from your pointy-haired boss to get your ass in gear for a code/feature freeze next week. So someone picked a date, and noone can push it back now can they? Yes there were rumors of a fall release. Does that make the probably unexpected feature freeze any more devistating to an unready development team? Off to patchland the ISDN users go!

    Not that Linux development should ever suffer from the curse of middle management, but it helps to keep the general on his toes.

    so...


    QUESTION AUTHORITY
  • Just on the off-chance anyone cares,
    and for comparison purposes,
    a lot of people in Ireland,
    when speaking "Irish-Dialect" English,
    use "yez" or "youse" as the 2nd person plural.
    Y'all is sometimes heard too.

  • I know, but see the autodection routines in there? I put one in for another card.
  • when do they decide that the next version should be for instance 2.4 instead of 3.0?



    As soon as they realize that the next release isn't going to be revolutionary enough to deserve the new major number :)

    what constitutes a feature freeze?



    When all the features are in place. They freeze it so that they'll be able to work on getting things stable instead of putting in new things all the time. A feature freeze does not mean that things are stable.

  • I bet Linus has some corporate intentions behind this sudden hurry. And I bet it has something to do with their mystery processor. And possibly something about Amiga too.

    Anyway I hope all this hurrying isn't going to hurt stability...
  • So is XFS or ext3 or ext2+b*tree going to make it in to 2.4? Is any of this stuff in the 2.3 kernels yet, I didn't think it was.
  • Don't know if this is the best place to ask this, in fact it probably isn't, but it'll do :)

    Is the USB support in the 2.4 kernel going to be 'complete' enough to allow the use of USB modems? I've noticed that they're the same price as serial modems or even slightly cheaper these days and I need a new modem. :)

  • 1.3.something isn;t that early.

    The earliest version I've used was AFAICR 0.03. It consisted of a boot and root disk, and booted to a shell. That was it!!!

    The first distribution I installed was an early slackware one with the 0.9x series kernels.

  • And if it crashes, doesn't do anything you want, and generally doesn't do anything correctly, then it's Windows... :)

    (ok, ok, ot but I had to say this)

  • Is the TCP/IP stack going to be rewritten to be multithreaded (finally) in 2.3.x/2.4? (I haven't been following the 2.3 releases at all... I miss my Ethernet.... when does school start again? :-) This is a badly needed feature in the kernel, and I can't believe that it didn't have it already...

    Anyway, if somebody has the answer to this question please email me at spong@wave.harvard.edu. [mailto]

    Thanks
    Matt

    "Software is like sex- the best is for free"
  • I once heard that IBM mathematically proved that some program of theirs (maybe AIX) wouldn't crash under normal hardware conditions. Doesn anyone know if this or anything like it is true?

    Ben
  • Gee a couple of big things come to mind, such as:

    ISDN (already mentioned)
    DEVfs
    Linux-Raid Patches
    Uniform-IDE/UDMA Driver

    I personally dont see much value to a new kernel until these are in........

    --John C
  • Red Hat 6.0 is based on kernel 2.2.5, although I wouldn't be surprised to see a 6.1 release (on a 2.2.x kernel) after 2.4 is released. Red Hat 7.0 is still a long ways away.
  • And there will always be new hardware for which new drivers are needed, or in certain cases even major kernel overhauls (for example SMP).
  • That sounds like the problem I have with floppies. Once in a while I need them to transfer some files to and from a laptop.
  • Note that in this case it is important not to mistake bugs for features.
  • My personal hope is that some of the changes in the FS and SCSI layers for 2.4 will help out the stability problems. Currently I can't scan with my SCSI scanner for more than a handful of scans before the sg device or machine locks.
  • No, y'all is still first person; all y'all is second person. ;)
  • ahh, but brand new roads can be a bad thing. My mother's street was cambered incorrectly around a corner (instead of going Up on the outside of the turn it went down) so lots of people had fun going around too fast and flying off the road into people's gardens, etc.
  • I was wondering what is the proper procedure for like maybe submitting it?

    Send it to the kernel mailing list. If it's not trivial, ask for testers; once it's tested, send again with an explanation and a request for inclusion and CC whoever is the maintainer for that code (looking in MAINTAINERS, hedrick at astro.dyer.vanderbilt dot edu seems like a good choice). Allow a week; if there's no response, send on to Linus and Alan with a brief note of explanation.

    Revise and repeat as needed.

    Sumner

  • Pardon the horrid off-topicness.

    Autumn is a British word. It's derived from the Middle English autumpne, from the Latin autumnus.

    So says Merriam-Webster, at least.
  • Also see:

    http://www.linuxtv.org/
  • I actually think I remember hearing that SGI was going to contrib some fixes toward this. I could be wrong.
  • I've got a BP6 as well and I actually (sorry) originally intended to install NT on it and put Linux on my PII. Unfortunately, (maybe) I couldn't even get NT to install on this machine, so I put Linux on it, w/o using the ATA66 support (I plugged my fancy ATA/66 HD into a standard IDE controller, what a waste.) However, what is this issue with pset? I don't even know what pset is. Also, where did you get ATA/66 support? It would be really nice to have that working, as it yields a nice performance boost. Are there plans to include it in the next kernel release?
  • suse 6.1 gives you the option of installing a 2.2 or a 2.0 kernel.
  • What's your point? That it was a mistake of judgement?

    Take a look at my logic again, I didn't make any value judgement on that point at all, because *I* don't know enough about the issue. I did assert that the management is "good enough for our purposes," which is more truly "good enough for my purposes". I don't think that "mr. authority said it" is a valid argument either, but so what?

    Someone had to pick a date, someone did. It's not like there's a date that would please everybody, is there?

  • "Good management style" isn't the first consideration. It's good enough for our purposes, don't you think?

    I wish you lame-ass AC's would ould give up ad-hominem attacks. It's really annoying.

  • I believe that more work should be going into stabilising 2.2.x. AFAIK Alan is still unhappy with the number of unexplained failures.

    Linux's "legendary stability" must be top priority.



    And what's this stuff about "kernel 2.4 will be after all at this fall"? Autumn is still nine months away.

    Think global.
  • Buncha slackers, those volunteer developers... :-)
  • Eh? 1.2.15? Was that a typo, or should I be upgrading my 1.2.13 laptop?
  • Well, there are the 2.2.xprey kernels... I suspect they don't get as widely tested as they should, though. I know I'm guilty of not trying them out... I try out some (though not all) of the 2.3.xprey kernels, but I've never tried a pre- kernel for one of the stable series, except for the 2.2.0prey kernels... they were more an extension of 2.1, though.
  • Now as soon as we get an actual stable 2.2.x kernel (no, 2.2.10 doesn't count as stable), and replace X with something decent (such as Berlin), all will be well. Oh, and get Dungeon Keeper 2 ported over =)
  • I can think of lots of things wrong with X.

    For the majority of users, the network transparency is not used. It just slows things down, sometimes by up to 10%. There should be some way of bypassing it for users who don't need/want it.

    Antialiased fonts are not supported by default.

    It is just plain slow compared to Win95 running on the same hardware. Scrolling is definitely slower (you can actually visibly see the windows redrawing themselves as you scroll, something i can never see in Win95 except on old 486s).

    A bunch more I can't think of at the moment which probably belongs in the "what's wrong with X" ask slashdot article anyway...
  • NFS was in a shoddy state in 2.2; 2.2.11 and 2.2.12, once Alan gets around to releasing them (I think he's here in Canada right now) should fix this reliably.
  • DK2 is going nowhere; I asked Bullfrog. (It was posted on linuxgames.com too)
  • That's motherboard!

    Honestly! The aliens have been trying to teach humanity Transmeta-ese for generations, and yet there are some humans that still can't speak the language correctly. Motherbase, indeed! Where would the processor go, eh?

  • It's in Shakespere, so it must be ok. :)
  • I have never, ever heard anyone talk about the "fall" season, in ANY context, in or around the British Isles, by ANYONE, other than visiting Americans.

    I have never, ever heard anyone talk about the "autumn" season, in ANY context, in or around the United States, by ANYONE, other than visiting Britons.

  • I think you make a valid point. 2.2. has been the most inconsistant series of kernels I've run through on any of my machines since the late .99's WAY back when.

    Example in point: I was getting random data corruption with every version of MySQL I've tried on a Dual Pentium II server under 2.2.5.

    Upgraded to 2.2.9, and the problem was fixed. That's a pretty glaring problem, IMHO.

    I have a machine at home that refused to run 2.2.7 or 2.2.8, 2.2.9 worked fine. I think there's an inherant problem with the even-stable odd-developer way of versioning things, that being that bug fixes in the even numbered kernels are never properly tested in a development-series before they come out as a new revision on an even number kernel. If 2.2.5 causes data corruption, it shouldn't have been released as a stable kernel, but with only two forks in the development, there's no other way to do it.

    What really should happen is there should be a development tree, a stable current version, and a more formalized wider-distributed testing version of the next stable version other than the AC patches, so a new "stable" version isn't presented as the "new stable kernel" because it simply ISN'T.



  • Although I generally say 'fall' more than 'autumn,' I do use both.

    But then I use two different pronunciations of 'either' interchangably, and I strongly support the use of 'y'all' as the new standard 2nd person plural pronoun. Maybe I'm just a freak.

  • I could make a lewd comment about rock-solid releases here, but I won't....

    --Joe

    --

  • Don't forget, the last day of fall is Dec 20th. I'm guessing that this is mainly a call to get people serious about closing on 2.4, and it's easier to be serious if you're at least somewhat serious about a deadline. In this case, Linus is trying to give us 2.4 as an early Christmas present, it would appear (even though he hasn't come out and said so).

    I'm sure that the kernel will go out when it's ready, and no sooner. Nonetheless, it's good to state some goals up-front, and a "limited development cycle" goal for 2.4 is probably a good idea. Saying "feature freeze" and "2.4 in the fall" at least gets people starting to think in that manner, rather than leaving it open-ended and sprawling, as it happened with Linux 2.2.

    (Personally, I feel 2.0 should've been 1.4, and 2.2 should've been 2.0, in retrospect. At least the numbering, relative amounts of features and release dates are more consistent that way. Ahhh well....)

    --Joe

    --

  • Please pardon my bout of mental flatulence.


    LATEST-IS-1.2.13
    --Joe

    --

  • There will always be bugs. There's no avoiding that.

    For now, Alan Cox is maintaining 2.0.xx, and it appears (from what I saw on Kernel Traffic) that he is/will be responsible for future 2.2.xx releases as well. Progress continues to be made on cleaning up the remaining nasties in 2.2, and 2.2.11 should be available sometime soon. (I'm guessing by the end of August.) Alan stated (and I'm paraphrasing heavily here) at the introduction of 2.2 that people who are happy with 2.0.3x shouldn't feel any overwhelming need to upgrade right away, and that they wouldn't be left out in the cold. I'm sure a similar sentiment holds for 2.2.

    IMHO, Linux 2.2.0 was far from perfect, but I must say that 2.2.10 seems to be far closer to "stable" than 2.0.10 was. In many ways, the stability and progress of 2.2 remind me of Linux 1.2 much more than it does of 2.0, which I believe is a very good thing. 2.0 took almost 30 revisions before it was truly stable, and it may even make it to 2.0.40 (although that's unlikely now).

    I think we can expect to see a number of bug fixes for awhile to come, perhaps with some well after 2.4.0 debuts. After all, 1.0.9 came out partway into the 1.2 series, and you have a similar story for 1.2.15 vs. 2.0.x and 2.0.37 vs. 2.2.x....

    --Joe

    --
  • I still don't think that 2.4 will be out by fall.
    Althought its only been a few months since 2.2 came out and 2.3 is already about to be frozen.
    There was a lot of new features being worked
    on and not merged with the main kernel months
    before 2.2 came out when 2.1 was frozen, and were
    shot into 2.3 as soon as it was open season.

    -Omar
    Omar El-Domeiri
  • ...our jackets, we're glad we brought-em.

    ...and you can call it 'fall' if that's what you please,

    but I say I like 'Autumn'!

    --Barney and Friends (hey, I have a 2 yr-old) :-D

  • Northern hemishpere snobs?

    How does Santa Claus dress in
    the Southern hemishpere?

    yeah yeah it's way off topic
  • I was planning my next machine to be on 2.2... It now looks like Linus, et al, may be finished with 2.4 before I even order any hardware.

    Does anyone know if SuSE or Red Hat is planning another release based on 2.2?

  • Re:I dont get it... (Score:3)

    by John Campbell ( 559 ) on Wednesday August 04, 1999 @07:51AM (#1766385) Homepage
    a) Linus decides, presumably based on the degree of change between the versions. I seem to recall seeing somewhere that he thought, in retrospect, that 2.0 should have been 1.4 and the 2.0 version number saved for what became 2.2... Either way, this next version will have only minor changes from 2.2, so it's clearly a 2.4.

    b) A feature freeze is when they stop adding new features and concentrate solely on working the stuff that's already there. Some feature freezes are more frozen than others - framebuffers, for example, were added to 2.1 after Linus' announcement that 2.1 was frozen. :)

    As for the second part of your question... there's a difference between "stable", "bug-free", and "perfect". If it doesn't crash but doesn't work quite right, either, it's stable but not bug-free. If it does everything correctly but doesn't do everything you want, it's bug-free but not perfect. If it doesn't crash, does everything you could want, and does it correctly, then it's stable, bug-free, and perfect.

    Note that for non-trivial pieces of software, "bug-free" and "perfect" are only theoretical conditions... they never happen in practice. There's always one more bug. Some pieces of software get closer than others, though...

  • Re:Bugs, Bugs.. where are you ?!!? (Score:3)

    by Pascal Q. Porcupine ( 4467 ) on Wednesday August 04, 1999 @04:59AM (#1766386) Homepage
    Feature freeze != code freeze. Even the best programmers occasionally have bugs in their code, and that's why a feature freeze is a Good Thing, as it lets the coders focus on fixing the bugs.
    ---
    "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.

  • Mmmmm... fresh kernel... (Score:3)

    by Corndog ( 18960 ) on Wednesday August 04, 1999 @04:53AM (#1766387) Homepage
    Running a fresh new kernel is like putting on a warm pair of boxers strait out of the drier.. Mmm....

  • Speculation rampant following Torvalds' e-mail (Score:5)

    by Shoeboy ( 16224 ) on Wednesday August 04, 1999 @05:48AM (#1766388) Homepage
    Thousands of Linux advocates and Transmeta watchers are debating the significance of a recent email sent from Linus Torvalds to Alan Cox on 8-3-99. The email read in part:
    Probably. I really think it's a matter of "if this device really doesn't
    have any ordering constraints, then we can use the new nifty feature to
    make it invisible to most users".

    The big question is what did Linus mean by those fateful words. On /. thousands have suggested that he is implying that Transmeta has created a magic invisibility device which Torvalds will use to battle the fiendish crime lord Erik "The Red" Blowhard.
    "Wow man!" Shouted flak in a post to /. "I think that Linus didn't mean to cc. the kernel list on this one. He's spilled the beans on the whole Transmeta operation. Think about it. Invisibility suits. This rules. FIRST POST."

    Anthropologists have postulated that Linus' mails receive so much attention because he is seen as a sort of divine "priest king" by his followers. "Unfortunately, this means that if the pace of development on the kernel ever slows, the crazed worshippers may sacrifice Linus to regain the favor of their gods. History shows this pattern occurring again and again." commented Dr. Rajeev Papshigali of the University of Utah. "If the sacrifice is unsuccessful, we may see Linux users losing their faith and joining other strange sects. Possibly they may even convert to one of the daemonology cults that originated at UC Berkeley."

    An AC suggested that this was an out-of-context quote from a mail about standard pc bus architecture. This was quickly moderated down as "flame bait" as was another post wondering if Linus could scratch his nose without having the event posted on /.

    --Shoeboy

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