New architecture switches the kernel to a “New world order”, says Linus Torvalds about the Linux Kernel 2.6.30 which was released just few days back with hundreds of changes.
Let us see what’s really new in it and why is it creating a buzz.
First of all , It now boots faster. It has been designed to speed up the Linux boot process.
This release adds lot more file system support. For example, it supports object-based storage device file system NILFS2 (New implementation of a log-structured file system (LFS)), adds a caching layer for local caching of NFS data, the RDS protocol has been added for high-performance and reliable connections between the servers in a cluster, the POHMELFS distributed networking file system and automatic flushing of files on renaming in ext3, ext4 and btrfs file systems. Another key addition is Ftrace, a framework for tracing system calls.
Besides this, there have been many other changes and enhancements in storage, graphics, network, sound, Digital TV, USB , FireWire and bluetooth device support. One more good news, Linux is going to be the first Operating system to support USB 3.0.
More virtualization support for KVM. Now you can use KVM hypercalls. Few more developments have happened at the CPU level around the x86 desktop, server and ARM mobile architectures.
The Tomoyo framework adds new features to boost Security. It’s an alternate approach to SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) access-control solution. Besides the permissive or enforcing modes that you could see in SELinux, Tomoyo provides a learning mode. Its a distinguishable feature when compared to SELinux.
All this is for better end-user experience. Expecting devices to work “out-of-the-box” with this brand new kernel.
Read more:
You can read more about the USB 3.0 Driver groundwork on “Sarah Sharp”‘s Blog – http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/online/news/first_driver_for_usb_3_0
Japan’s NTT’s Tomoyo project – http://tomoyo.sourceforge.jp/wiki-e/?WhatIs#comparison
NILFS Project – http://www.nilfs.org/en/about_nilfs.html
Interested in learning more about Linux 2.6.30 features ? http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_30
