Tech
“Linux Kernel 6.1.6” NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
(CTN NEWS) – The Linux kernel-based computer operating system family is referred to as Linux.
Linux can be deployed on various computer hardware, including mainframes, supercomputers, routers, video game consoles, mobile phones, tablet computers, and routers.
The 10 world’s fastest supercomputers run Linux, a top server operating system.
One of the most well-known instances of free and open-source software collaboration is the development of Linux; typically, under licences like the GNU General Public License.
The underlying source code can be used, modified, and redistributed by anyone for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
For desktop and server use, Linux is typically packaged in what is known as a Linux distribution format. Popular mainstream Linux distributions include Fedora, openSUSE, and Debian (and its offshoots like Ubuntu).
To use the distribution as intended, Linux distributions include the Linux kernel, auxiliary utilities, and libraries.
Linux Kernel Download
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Mainline
Linus Torvalds maintains the mainline tree. All new features are introduced in this tree, and this is also where all the exciting new development takes place. Every two to three months, new mainline kernels are issued.
Stable
Each mainline kernel is deemed “stable” upon its public release. A designated stable kernel maintainer applies any bug fixes for a stable kernel by backporting them from the mainline tree.
Unless it is a “long-term maintenance kernel,” there are typically only a few bugfix releases before the next mainline kernel is made available. Updates to the stable kernel are issued as required, typically once per week.
Longterm
Many “longterm maintenance” kernel releases are typically offered to backport bug fixes for earlier kernel trees. Such kernels typically only receive significant bug patches and thus don’t see a lot of releases, especially for older trees.
What’s New?
Of all, “nothing fundamentally changed about this release” does not imply that there aren’t many changes. With over 800 merges and around 13.5k non-merge commits, version 6.0 appears to be another hefty release.
I had genuinely hoped we would receive part of the multi-gen LRU VM and some of the first rust infrastructure, but neither materialized this time.
There are constantly new releases. However, there is a tonne of ongoing development that is pretty much everywhere. Because the “shortlog” is too large to provide, this rc1 notification only includes my “merge log.”
You can get a high-level picture by quickly reviewing that, but it’s important to reiterate that the individuals indicated in the merge log are only the maintainers I use; when you start looking at the complete specifics in the git tree, there are more than 1700 developers engaged.
Again, this is one of those releases where you shouldn’t look too closely at the diffstat because more than half of it is just another AMD GPU register dump.
And the Habanalabs Gaudi2 guys also want to compete in that field, but they don’t quite achieve the same high standards of performance that the AMD GPU folks have grown to be known for. It will happen. Eventually, I’m positive.
In the JSON files that define the performance events, the CPU individuals also appear, but they are incredibly underrepresented compared to the automatically created GPU and AI hardware descriptions in ‘asic reg’.
So, if you genuinely want to look at the differences themselves, keep your attention away from those areas.
Once you’ve done that, the statistics appear to be very typical, with about 60% of the drivers being updated (all over, but the biggest updates are to the sound, networking, and graphics cards, which is again fairly typical).
The remainder consists of arch updates, filesystem upgrades, tooling updates, and other sporadic changes.
In all its splendour, it has 13099 files updated, 1280295 insertions(+), and 341210 deletions. This includes all the AMD GPU hardware definitions, etc. (-). You can see the full release notes for the Linux Kernel 6.1.2 here.
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