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Learn about the new Linux 2.6 kernel
Curious to read what the new Linux 2.6 kernel does? Check out this pretty in depth analysis.
The wonderful world of linux has a nice overview of all the new features of the 2.6 kernel. Most are highly specialized, but some will be of interest to desktop users. :: Quote :: In addition to just scaling up, another priority with the new release has been to make the system more responsive. This is useful not only for the general desktop user (who always likes to see things respond quickly), but also to more time-critical applications where absolute preciseness is required to achieve the desired effect. Despite these changes, Linux 2.6 will not be a "hard" Real Time OS, which has very strict requirements for absolutely ensuring that actions happen predictably, but the overall responsiveness improvements should appeal to all classes of Linux users. That's very good news, should help deal with the sluggishness of the Linux desktops. Now if the desktops themselves can just work on getting meaner and leaner, following the new Firefox development model.... :: Quote :: the new device infrastructure essentially eliminates the differences between a hot-plug and a legacy device. Since the kernel subsystem does not directly differentiate between a device discovered at boot time from one discovered later, much of the infrastructure for dealing with pluggable devices has been simplified.This is good news too, people don't like it when something 'just doesn't work right', that's as far as most people can get with tech stuff. :: Quote :: The sum of all of those modifications, is that now Linux is now a "true" Plug-and-Play OS and may be set as such in a compatible machine's BIOS.Again, fantastic news, can't wait to get a version up and running to test these claims out. :: Quote :: The most major changes are centered around the IDE subsystem which has been rewritten (and rewritten again) during the development of the new kernel, resolving many scalability problems and other limitations. For example, IDE CD/RW drives can now be written to directly through the real IDE disk driver...
new support has been added for high-speed Serial ATA (S-ATA) devices, which have transfer rates exceeding 150 MB/sec The serial ATA support was distinctly lacking, this should be a major boost, imagine a high end motherboard running 64 bit processors like AMD and SATA harddrives, that is a machine that would be worth checking out in a serious way. :: Quote :: Linux 2.6 also features improved (and rewritten) support for the NTFS filesystem and it is now possible to mount a NTFS volume read/write. This should help greatly with running dual booting systems, NT and Linux, previously this was not easy to implement, I tried in Redhat 8 and couldn't get this working right, but that was the 2.4 kernel. Take a look, it's pretty interesting, I'll post more when I get some first hand experience with the new kernel. Back to top |
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