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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.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by cykros on Tuesday June 16 2020, @04:48PM (4 children)
No, we just had the decade of Linux and Unix on the devices that for most people replaced desktops.
If you wanted the year of the GNU/Linux machine you should have specified.
In any case, with the way the distro design process has been going, by the time the official desktop share is mostly Linux, none of us who care about the transition will want anything to do with Linux anymore anyway.
New goal: year of the TempleOS desktop. 640x400 or bust!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Tork on Wednesday June 17 2020, @06:46AM (3 children)
Are Android devices really considered 'Linux' when the user is so far abstracted away from it? I realize in this crowd that question might sound snarky, but I'm actually curious. I've used Android devices a handfull of times, the last being maybe five years ago, and I don't recall needing to know anything linuxy or coming away from it with anything new. I realize that's anecdotal, but even when I got my first Macbook I had to mess around in the terminal a little to make my Home and End keys look right. I never made it deeper than whatever the UI provides.
I guess what I'm really asking is if the metric of success counts even if there's no meaningful Open Source development coming from it? As far as I know (corrections welcome!!) none of the UI or the built-in apps Google provides have the source code available. Back in my Slashdot days I understood that was specifically the appeal, especially now that we're seeing the value in keeping abandonware alive.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday June 17 2020, @12:17PM
It's based on the Linux kernel, at least.
The future may look different. There will probably be another attempt to merge smartphone and desktop experiences. Why not run Linux applications on a docked smartphone? Smartphones are coming out with 16 GB of RAM, probably more within the next few years, might as well use it for something.
Google's Chrome OS supports Android and Linux applications, and is now making its way onto tablets like the Lenovo Duet. Their upcoming (?) Fuchsia OS [wikipedia.org] could do the same, although it will be based on a new kernel.
https://www.osnews.com/story/131858/google-details-fuchsia-states-it-is-not-experimental/ [osnews.com]
Smartphone manufacturers are wary of giving Google more power, but they can go their own way, like Samsung with DeX for docking or Tizen for an OS alternative.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:09PM
You don't need to know much Linuxy stuff to use most Linux distros nowadays. You don't need to pull up a terminal window or edit plaintext conf files regularly for it to be a proper Linux experience anymore.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cykros on Monday June 22 2020, @05:45PM
Linux IS a kernel. Everything else is software that relies upon it to run. Whether you run sysvinit, upstart, runit, or systemd. Whether you run bash, tcsh, zsh, or csh, it's still Linux. Whether you run XFree86, Xorg, or Wayland (or none of the above), it's still Linux. And yes, whether you run any of these at all, or instead, a userland like Android, as long as it's still the Linux kernel, it's still Linux.
If it weren't, then you wouldn't be able to install a more conventional Linux distribution in a chroot, which is totally a thing people do.
For the easiest fun without bothering to root your phone to take advantage of it being Linux, I'd say check out the Termux app, as it gives you a functioning local terminal with a good few neat tools to interface with the rest of the android system and the ability to write the quick and dirty style scripts we've grown to know and love on the desktop or server.