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Linux Kernel Colonel Torvalds Claims 5.8 is 'One of Our Biggest Releases of All Time'

posted by martyb on Tuesday June 16 2020, @02:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the whole-lotta-changes-coming dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactorIsLazy:

Bigger than big: Linux kernel colonel Torvalds claims 5.8 is 'one of our biggest releases of all time':

All going well, the stable release should appear sometime in August.

Introducing the release candidate, Torvalds said it was "right up there with v4.9, which has long been our biggest release by quite a bit in number of commits." That said, the 4.9 kernel was "artificially big" because of a couple of special factors, whereas 5.8 is a "more comprehensive release."

Torvalds said: "The development is really all over the place: there's tons of fairly fundamental core work and cleanups, but there is also lots of filesystem work and obviously all the usual driver updates too. Plus documentation and architecture work." He added: "We have modified about 20 per cent of all the files in the kernel source repository. That's really a fairly big percentage, and while some of it _is_ scripted, on the whole it's really just the same pattern: 5.8 has simply seen a lot of development."

While the code for the kernel is large, only a small part of it ends up in any individual system, since the kernel source contains code for every chip architecture and hardware it supports. In early 2018, maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman said that "an average laptop uses around 2 million lines of kernel from 5,000 files to function properly." At the time, there were 25 million lines of code in the kernel, whereas now there are over 28 million.

See also: Linux 5.8 Kernel Features Include New Intel/AMD Capabilities, Security Improvements, Optimizations.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Dr Spin on Tuesday June 16 2020, @04:21PM (3 children)

    by Dr Spin (5239) on Tuesday June 16 2020, @04:21PM (#1008708)
    Don't worry - it will soon be the year of systemd ...

    ... Be afraid, be very afraid <omenous music>

    --
    Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Funny=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday June 16 2020, @04:51PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 16 2020, @04:51PM (#1008730) Journal

    I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new systemd filesystem!

    --
    To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @06:13PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @06:13PM (#1008777)

    You're not as clever as you think you are.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:54PM (#1008864)

      Fuck off, Lennart, we don't like you.