Linus Torvalds Approves Linux 3.0 RC1

[sygeek]

Good news guys, Linus Torvalds Approved Linux 3.0 RC1

Nearly 20 years after Linus Torvalds’ first Linux post and after 39 major releases for the Linux 2.6 kernel, the OS inventor signed off on Linux 3.0. The new kernel is now available as RC1.

Torvalds posted the 3.0 RC1 as a 93 MB download on the kernel.org mailing list at about 6 pm PST, marking a major new phase for the open source operating system. There has been a debate for some time whether it was time to move up from the 2.6 versioning, possibly to 2.8, for some time. There general notion among Linux kernel contributors has been that it would be a good time to leave some of the old and no longer needed features behind along with the 2.6 version number.

A commit from Torvalds confirming the 3.0 RC1 version number was posted earlier today, while the actual snapshot followed a few hours later. Torvalds did not publicly comment on the version number but simply stated: “Version numbers? We can increment them!” He downplay the move a bit, but it is a big move for the software that has symbolic character as Linux is now moving into its third decade. Torvalds announced Linux on August 26, 1991. Version 2 of the Kernel was released in 1996. Several Linux developers have asked for kernel version numbers that have stronger times to specific dates. It seems that version 3 arrives just in time for another 10 years of Linux kernel releases.

There are several new feature sin Linux 3.0, including a Microsoft Kinect Linux driver, support for cleancache, updated graphics drivers, optimizations for Intel platforms (Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge) as well AMD’s Fusion APUs. In his official announcement (we were made aware that lkml is hard to reach. Here is the cached link), Torvalds stated that, despite “the usual two thirds driver changes” and random fixes, version is “just” about renumbering: “We are very much *not* doing a KDE-4 or a Gnome-3 here,” Torvalds wrote. 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.”

[thetechfreak]

Phew. Its great a new kernel came out.
The Microsoft Kinect parts seems very interesting

[sygeek]

Torvalds stated that, despite “the usual two thirds driver changes” and random fixes, version is “just” about renumbering: “We are very much *not* doing a KDE-4 or a Gnome-3 here,” Torvalds wrote. No breakage, no special scary new features, nothing at all like that.

Disappointment, although I'm glad they've renumbered the entire complex 2.x.x.x.x into version 3.

[Liverpool_fan]

Nothing much really. Just a change in the number.

[baccilus]

It has the Kinect driver.... Why is that?

[sygeek]

^Because Kinect = Awesomeness

[abhijangda]

just another kernel update!!

[sygeek]

Linux mainline contains all the Xen code bits for Dom0 and DomU support (Wim Coekaerts Blog)
Xen celebrates the final step of a four year odyssey » ocb - Citrix Community

[Vyom]

Pardon me. Not much of a Linux user here.
So can we deduce from the above news, that Each and Every Linux that we today use, such as Fedora, Red Hat, Ubuntu.. etc.. etc.. were ALL based on Linux 2.6 kernel?

[Liverpool_fan]

2.6 is a bad way of describing. The original 2.6 kernel was released way back in 2003. And 2.6.38 is the last of the 2.6.x now in 2011, and both are WAAAY different.
And yeah distros just use the stable kernel version, add their patches, integrate with GNU, X.org, Gnome/KDE, etc. and ship it to users.