Remember to vote early and vote often - Old Chicago proverb
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Linus Torvalds christens the next Linux kernel 3.0
LINUX FOUNDER Linus Torvalds has incremented the Linux version number to 3.0.
What was going to become Linux 2.6.40 has, in the blink of an eye or a few clicks of Torvalds' keyboard, become Linux 3.0.0-rc1. There had been talk last year about whether the Linux kernel development team should call time on the 2.6 version of the Linux kernel, with some having suggested that 2.8 should be the next major version number. Now Torvalds has made the decision that the next major Linux kernel release will be 3.0.
In Torvalds' commit statement he said, "Hopefully by the time the final 3.0 is out, we'll have that extra zero all figured out." Not surprisingly Torvalds' commit ushered in the expected arguments of whether the Linux 2.6.40 update could be justified as a big enough revision to warrant a whole new version number.
Torvalds replied on the Linux Kernel mailing list explaining his decision. "I decided to just bite the bullet, and call the next version 3.0. It will get released close enough to the 20-year mark, which is excuse enough for me, although honestly, the real reason is just that I can no longer comfortably count as high as 40." It's hard to argue against the man who invented Linux and still commits a significant amount of code.
As for the big changes, Torvalds said there are none. "Sure, we have the usual two thirds driver changes, and a lot of random fixes, but the point is that 3.0 is *just* about renumbering, we are very much *not* doing a KDE-4 or a Gnome-3 here. No breakage, no special scary new features, nothing at all like that. We've been doing time-based releases for many years now, this is in no way about features. If you want an excuse for the renumbering, you really should look at the time-based one ('20 years') instead."
Torvalds added, "There's absolutely no reason to aim for the traditional '.0' problems that so many projects have." He concluded, "Let's make sure we really make the next release not just an all new shiny number, but a good kernel too."
With Linux distributions packaging kernels without much reference to the Linux version number, the change is most likely going to affect kernel developers more than the majority of end users. Nevertheless, if Torvalds' decision to make a major change to the version number will attract new users to Linux, then it's a wise move. µ
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Yup, it's the end of an era. All those 45-year old virgins living in their Mom's basement and running Linux 2.6 or (shudder) older, pay attention, your life is about to change! New era begins!! Next year you will be 46-year old virgins, still living in your Mom's basement, BUT YOU WILL BE RUNNING LINUX 3.0 !!!!! GO LINUX !!!!!
@Wayne Kerr
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
This is a perfect explanation of not only all people but also all operating systems. Sure, Linux may not be without its quirks, but Windows sure isn't perfect either, especially with all the software bloat it has, as well as its *terrible* out-of-the-box hardware support (you need to install a driver for everything, whereas in Linux half the hardware drivers in the world are installed with the kernel, with the exception of a few binary blobs) not to mention the fact that Windows Genuine Disadvantage is miserable enough to certainly stump any user. There is no such thing as Linux piracy, because Linux is open source. Fools and blind! Google that term.
Well, how old is the 2.x.x branch? 15 years old? Linux has had alot of changes since then. It's more stable, supports several architectures, and is rather secure.
Hope the 3.x branch lasts another 15 years.
I run both Windows and Linux. Windows 7 is a hell of alot better than the previous versions. I've ran W2K drivers on it and it likes it (with a little complaining).
I use Linux mostly on my servers which range from an old AMD K6 to a DP/DC Xeon. It runs nice and smooth and I don't have to worry about server licenses and how many clients can connect to it.
One thing I ask is keep the older architectures (i486/586, ppc, sparc, etc) available in all future releases. I like running 2.6.38 on my K6 without issues and having people say "That thing still runs?"
BTW: I use Gentoo Linux.
WINDOWS 3.0 IS -TERRIBLE- WHO WOULD WANT IT?
I SURE DO HOPE LINUX 3.0 IS BETTER THAN THAT.
If you want an OS that downloads stuff at random without telling you, accesses your hard drive seemingly at whim, warns you every minute or so about something that's wrong with your setup, offers a command prompt that's slightly more advanced than a Commodore 64, refuses to boot unless it is given the first position on a partition, costs as much as a cheap netbook, comes preinstalled with such advanced software as wordpad, fails to recognize partitions formatted by other operating systems, requires driver installation for almost everything and whines when the driver isn't made by Microsoft, turns blue and dies when you do extreme things like connecting to the Internet, requires constant protection from viruses, and is 100% closed-source, use Windows.
For everyone else, there's Linux 3.0
Wayne is SO right. If you want to install the internet onto your computer and be able to browse the web and point and click and multitask and do all of the things that are so DIFFICULT if not IMPOSSIBLE to do with any other Operating System (O/S) you need to use the Micr0$uck$ LoseDoze O/S.
Give me my LOSE-DOZE!
Your response might have been warranted if the article or some other poster had made some goofy OS-zealot statement, but I'm puzzled about what you're even responding to?
I think its a breathe of fresh air. 20 years..yep..its kinda like taking a pause and smell the roses..Linux is here to stay. It has a nice ring to it too. Kernel three point oh :)
Big fat floating turd. Good for PVRs and other cheap crap.
For computers, get Windows. They work. No, really. Stop living in 1995 if you think otherwise.