Gidday!
I was just flicking through the Kernel Traffic archives, did a brief skim,
and was alarmed to find my name there. It was in this thread, so I decided
it was worth a second look for my .000000015*10^-999999999 nanoseconds of
fame. I've updated the press release itself below.
There are other cool features I'm leaving out here (devfs, etc, technically
cool stuff), but this is a press release for the newspapers to seize upon,
not a developers' newsletter. I've rewritten the press release itself below;
this is just a change summary.
I really hope this will be released and useful. A computer magazine here
(Australia, but naming no names) had a feature "Alternative OS's" story.
There were quite a few glaring errors and omissions in it, and I banged out
a lengthy correction e-mail to the writer involved. He explained he didn't
have much experience with Linux, and that he wasn't really advanced enough
to see all the new features for himself and that the normal Linux section
writer was away, leaving him, the features writer, to write it. He bemoaned
the fact that there was no central change repository/document out there and
also that a "senior kernel guy told me to 'bugger off'." I'm not defending
him on the last bit, but if we had things like this out and constantly
updated for all the media-y type people, he wouldn't even need to
ask.</sidetrack></rant>
Note: My reference kernels were 2.4.0-test8-pre1 and 2.2.16 (the only
2.2.x machine I have around is a production box on a dead slow dialup, and
I've downloaded far, far too much this month already, so no .17-pre).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LINUX KERNEL 2.4 (DRAFT!)
The Internet, September XX, 2000
Linus Torvalds and the kernel development team would like to announce the immediate availability of Linux 2.4, the latest revision of the popular open source operating system kernel. This update brings increased scalability and performance to all Linux users, in addition to new hardware support.
Notewothy Features:
-> Enterprise
-> Servers
* Enterprise Ready! Linux 2.4 includes changes that make it even more ready for Enterprise environments. This new revision supports up to 64 gigabytes of RAM, allows files to be larger than 2 gigabytes, supports many more simultaneous processes, and has been largely rewritten to take better advantage of systems with multiple processors.
* Linux also includes Logical Volume Manager, for easy administration of disk space; you can also combine several hard drives/partitions into one for even more space and ease!
-> Platforms
* Linux now supports Itanium, the new 64-bit Intel hardware (aka IA-64), the S/390, an IBM mainframe, as well as the SuperH, a chip often used in Windows CE-based handhelds. Existing support for Intel, Apple, Sun SPARC/UltraSPARC, Compaq's Alphas and MIPS processors has also been greatly improved.
-> Desktop
-> Interfaces
* More interface support! Linux is now even better supported for the desktop with the advent of support for USB, FireWire and AGP. It also improves current support for PCMCIA cards, often used in laptops, and Plug and Play devices.
-> Multimedia
* Faster multimedia with specially designed video acceleration drivers. In combination with the new release of the X Windows System, Linux includes drivers to take full advantage of your accelerated video card (nVidia and 3Dfx cards among those supported) to get maximum video performance for gaming, graphics, etc.
-> Network
-> Architecture
* The entire network architecture has been rewritten to make it lean, fast, powerful and flexible - especially on multi-processor systems. This brings to Linux the networking ability previously only seen on expensive dedicated equipment.
* Now even more efficient for firewalling and masquerading! Linux includes a new architecture, known as Netfilter, to act as a firewall (security - choose what gets through and what doesn't), and masquerading server (multiple machines can share the one connection without any fuss or hassle). Netfilter is now much quicker, more functional and more extensible.
-> Protocols
* New Internet features - support for IPv6 and multicasting. In response to the lack of new internet addresses, a new protocol, IPv6 has been developed to be used in the next-generation Internet. Linux now supports this and multicasting, a technique used to minimise bandwidth use.
-> Filesharing/Servers
* Kernel Web server acceleration - In conjunction with any web server such as Apache, the new Kernel Web Server enhancements can speed up page loading time dramatically, while seamlessly working with your existing setup.
* Support for version 3 of Sun's popular NFS file system has been added, ensuring accessibility to and from all UNIX systems, especially Sun's Solaris.
This update is already available to advanced users through multiple kernel mirrors (for more mirror information, please see http://www.kernel.org). Although no timeframes have been announced at this time, all current Linux distributors will be updating to this version of the kernel within the next several months.
Linux is developed by a online team of programmers headed by Linus Torvalds, a resident of Santa Clara, CA. Linux has been developed using the open source methodology which provides for source code and peer review at all stages of development. It is because of this system of openness that Linux has grown to be the most successful non-corporate operating system to date.
For more information, please consult www.linux.org for a list of other Linux-related websites. More information on the new features in Linux 2.4 can be found in the "Wonderful World of Linux 2.4" document, available from *******FIXME: W(here)TF is it?*********
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.
-- Daniel Stone Kernel Hacker (or at least has aspirations to be) daniel@dustpuppy.ods.org http://dustpuppy.ods.org - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Sep 07 2000 - 21:00:11 EST