New Version of the Linux Kernel Arrives

by Sam Dean - Aug. 02, 2010Comments (0)

Linus Torvalds has announced version 2.6.35 of the Linux kernel. Notably, Torvalds' own discussion of the new version is good, but he himself points to the writeup at Kernelnewbies as a better summary of the changes and additions. The new version of the kernel is designed to handle network traffic more efficiently, has video acceleration improvements and much more. It also remains a truly open source team effort, with most of the major contributions coming from big businesses.

According to Kernelnewbies:

"Linux 2.6.35 includes support for transparent spreading of incoming network load across CPUs, Direct-IO support for Btrfs, an new experimental journal mode for XFS, the KDB debugger UI based on top of KGDB, improvements to 'perf', H.264 and VC1 video acceleration in Intel G45+ chips, support for the future Intel Cougarpoint graphic chip, power management for AMD Radeon chips, a memory defragmentation mechanism, support for the Tunneling Protocol version 3 (RFC 3931), support for multiple multicast route tables, support for the CAIF protocol used by ST-Ericsson products, support for the ACPI Platform Error Interface, and many new drivers and small improvements."

We've done a number of posts on the evolution of kernel development that are worth reviewing for perspective on the new version. You can find some interesting commentary from Torvalds here. We've also noted how the kernel is making room for new types of devices. Webcams and Flash devices are increasingly transparent to use, and there has even been ongoing work on making the Linux kernel friendly on the iPhone.

Probably one of the biggest surprises for many people, though, is that the bulk of work on new versions of the Linux kernel is done by large corporations, ranging from IBM, to Intel to Red Hat. Just take a look at the story and chart found here for a snapshot of how kernel development trucks along. The ongoing sophistication of the kernel is a true open source story, and as The Linux Foundation has noted, "one of the largest cooperative software projects ever attempted."