Oh happy day! Linus Torvalds has given the world Linux 4.10

Linus Torvalds has given us all version 4.10 of the Linux kernel. “So there it is, the final 4.10 release,” Torvalds told the world after his customary Sunday afternoon effort. “On the whole, 4.10 didn't end up as small as it initially looked,” he adds. “After the huge release that was 4.9, I expected things to be pretty …

[Anonymous Coward]

I still like Linux, but...

When looking at Linus outbursts, when looking at how hard is has become to get involved and when looking at (sometimes) the sheer display of arrogance (especially when the original poster turned out to be 100% right afterwards (sorry for being a bit vague, I don't want to risk firing up heated (offtopic) debates here)) and of course when also looking at the massive monetary interests which plenty of bigger companies have in Linux (try getting your driver accepted in the kernel as a start up company?)...

When I add of all that up I can't help wonder, with all due respect, if Linux hasn't grown into the very thing it once tried to fight.

[Paul Crawford]

Re: your driver accepted in the kernel as a start up company?

Have you tried the same for Windows?

If you are a start-up company how many Linux users will actually have your hardware and need a kernel driver module?

Most specialist hardware companies I know of ship a compilable module for any drivers - that can be part object code if you have IPR to protect, and then end users compile on demand. Yes, its a pain in some cases but you can automate that.

[Halfmad]

Re: your driver accepted in the kernel as a start up company?

Wow, are we Linux fans so unable to debate a topic these days that we've got to drag in MS or Windows into every instance?

Addressing the OP's concerns - One of the reasons Linux is arguably as stable as it is has to do with Linus's being such a hands-on protective type who's not afraid to snarl when required. It'd be a bloody mess otherwise.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: your driver accepted in the kernel as a start up company?

Yes. Yes, Linux fans are so unable to debate that they need to sneer at WinDo$e- even the ones who have no idea what you can actually do with it / no proper experience with it.

Also, look at Apple- when they had a visionary arsehole in charge they created tech that was pretty well QC-ed. Linux was the same way. Microsoft's leaders never seemed to have that hard edge, but even when Gates left they lost a lot of focus.

[Halfmad]

Re: your driver accepted in the kernel as a start up company?

Visionary? What? He was a salesman and a good one. Might as well have been a different coloured double glazing with LEDs and fancy glass.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: I still like Linux, but...

"When I add of all that up I can't help wonder, with all due respect, if Linux hasn't grown into the very thing it once tried to fight."

You got to be kidding!

You have the source code to Windows 10, and direct access to the developers?

Linus actually created the Linux kernel, and thank God he controls things like a dictator. Imagine what would happen otherwise... A benevolent dictator, mind. He is only human, please cut him some slack.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I still like Linux, but...

Linux didn't invent CRAP.

He stole the origin kernel from minux source project. and structured it JUST LIKE SVR-4 UNIX .. ie: Solaris . The stacked file system : vfs, loadable modules, cdev/bdev interface, shared lib's, boot from initrd, bdflush /proc fs,

.. all UNIX SVR-4.

[ckdizz]

Re: Linux didn't invent CRAP.

I think you're confused about how you create an operating system, and the licence for MINIX. Linus didn't steal anything: he worked on MINIX to write the Linux kernel and cross-compiled GCC versions for Linux until he had a usable version of Linux to work on. It was intentional that MINIX components could be used in the first versions of Linux, but seeing as Linux has always been open source, and seeing as MINIX was intended to be used in educational scenarios, the accusation of stealing from MINIX is far fetched and utterly wrong. He would have been caught out pretty quickly.

The irony of accusing Linus of copying SVR4 is hysterical, seeing as System V throughout its history has lifted features wholesale from a whole bunch of other OSes - SunOS, BSD, Xenix. There's a reason both Linux and MINIX are UNIX-like - they deliberately emulated UNIX.

[fuzzie]

Re: Linux didn't invent CRAP.

No stealing required from any of those.

The tome called the Single UNIX Specification was available and explains in a lot of detail everything from system calls to header files to shell commands and utilities. SUS (aka UNIX'95) arrived roughly in parallel to Linux's initial growth spurt and GNU had already been implementing much of it, save for a complete kernel, for the better part of a decade.

[GrapeBunch]

Missing icon for "you should be sooo glad this is a text rather than audio medium"

Oh, when Linus walked, when he talked, he took my Wins away, oh happy day, oh happy day.

[tony2heads]

Re: Missing icon for "you should be sooo glad this is a text rather than audio medium"

Cue the Edwin Hawkins Singers in ecstatic chorus

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

-0.8

“After the huge release that was 4.9"

oh , so 4.10 is bigger than 4.9 ? Interesting. You'd have thought software programmers , being sticklers for order , conventions and code etc, would follow the basic rules of mathematics.

[JOKM]

Re: -0.8

The dot spectator is not numeric it merely separates the version parts. Otherwise your increments would have to change by a factor of 10 every 10 versions.

<MajorVersion>.<Minor version>.<BuildNo> would be one of many different patterns.

The Firefox versioning system was one designed for people like you. Also the reasons I use chrome.

[Graham Dawson]

Re: -0.8

Mathematics jokes are serious business.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: -0.8

Theres only 10 kinds of people that understand binary .....

[Olius]

Re: -0.8

...and the one who doesn't gave you a downvote.

[PNGuinn]

Re: -0.8

Yes, but MINUS 0.8 WTF??

What kind of version increment is that - a regression?

>>Obligatory ms trolling<< A windoze desktop usability update?

[Chris Evans]

Re: -0.8 A clearer option?

Using a full stop as a non decimal separator helps put off potential users. Why not use say a dash or a letter?

So for Release 4 Version 9 Build 2

4.9.2

4-9-2

R4V9B2

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: -0.8 A clearer option?

"Using a full stop as a non decimal separator helps put off potential users. "

You do realise a lot of the world doesn't use a full stop as a decimal separator?

[PNGuinn]

Re: -0.8 A clearer option?

There clearly needs to be a definitive simple standard for versioning to end all this time wasting and confusion.

This is even more clearly a job for a reputable and internationally respected Standards Bureau.

C'MON, el Reg, get on it pronto!

[PNGuinn]

Re: -0.8 A clearer option?

I've got a better idea - tell those nice folks at Mozilla about the exponential function.

Firefox v 797exp249.16.11.

Oh - sorry - that was last week.

[dbannon]

Re: -0.8 A clearer option?

"Using a full stop as a non decimal separator helps put off potential users."

Really ? Just how many new Linux users even know how to find the kernel version ? They may know the (eg) Ubuntu release [..15.04, 15.10, 16.04, 16.10 ..] its not much of a sequence either.

Sorry Chris, it might annoy but by time you know enough Linux to use it, your hooked !

[John Gamble]

Re: -0.8

"The Firefox versioning system was one designed for people like you. Also the reasons I use chrome."

???

Chrome is where that numbering system started, which Firefox slavishly copied, much to my annoyance.

[John H Woods]

Re: -0.8

"oh , so 4.10 is bigger than 4.9" --- Prst. V.Jeltz

I do hope your job includes assigning IP addresses!

[Jame_s]

Re: -0.8

this convention has tweaked my ocd for years, but i've learned to live with it.

you're fighting a losing battle on this one.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: -0.8

Yeah I realise that now from the downvotes..

(the IP crack - very good)

On the upside , just found this little gem:

Q: Why is it that programmers always confuse Halloween with Christmas?

A: Because 31 OCT = 25 DEC.

[John Savard]

Re: -0.8

As was clear from the article, there were a "huge" number of changes between 4.8 and 4.9, making it a huge release; therefore, Linus was expecting 4.10 to be a modest release. That expectation was not met; the number of changes between 4.9 and 4.10 was average. So 4.9 is still a bigger release than 4.10, even if 4.10 was a bigger release than expected.

Or, if you're referring to the fact that 4.10 comes after 4.9, and doesn't equal 4.1, don't think of the dot as a decimal point.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

Re: -0.8

Actually, in the 21st Century world of rapid releases and agile development, the whole idea of having major/minor release numbering is broken.

Just axe the decimal point completely. Make it version 4009 and version 4010 and just start sequencing up by integers. Software releases are not like movie debuts anymore.

[j_gross]

New XEN maintainer?

The MAINTAINERS file doesn't reflect the note about a new maintainer of the XEN interface. Alternative facts?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: New XEN maintainer?

"Jürgen Gross .. is now Linux Kernel maintainer for the Xen Hypervisor Interface alongside Boris Ostrovsky and David Vrabel. Other maintainers of Xen specific components in the Linux Kernel are Stefano Stabellini, Wei Lui, and Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk."

[Oh Homer]

"Oh happy day!"?

Seriously?

A kernel is like an insurance policy: we all need one, but it's not exactly the sort of thing that should induce euphoria.

[Howard Hanek]

Pity

There's no 'do you like what you see?" I'm so used to now from Microsoft. The only company I know that offers us 'seeing is not believing' as it's product development philosophy.

[d3rrial]

Re: Pity

"Seeing is not believing"

Wow. You most definitely won the internet twice over with that. Thank you for the hearty laugh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Maths jokes?

I knew a constipated maths professor once.

He tried to work it out with a pencil.

[fredesmite]

my 2.6.32 and 3.10 kernels work well

so why bother?

[1Rafayal]

Re: my 2.6.32 and 3.10 kernels work well

because perhaps you might need some of the stuff this kernel brings to the table?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: my 2.6.32 and 3.10 kernels work well

Excellent news, fredesmite! If it's working well for you, then I agree: Linux should stop.

[Anonymous Coward]

808 and 810

Genuine question here - are there any uses of these SOCs where thermal throttling isn't the main performance limitation?

The only SBC I can find is an insane $495, I doubt anybody will be using it as a SFF desktop running Linux. The SOC doesn't even have a fan.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Re: 808 and 810

Phones used to have a big piece of pyrolytic graphite tape to fix the thermal issues, but that stuff is crazy expensive and customers complained about hot phones when running low quality games. Now phones throttle after a few seconds and people give great reviews about how cool their phone runs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 808 and 810

Samsung! Lol.

[Herby]

With new releases...

I wish that they would put up on a site (kernel.org?) a nice 3 page treatise that explains the "highlights" of the release, in somewhat general terms. Sure there is lots of detail in the commit logs, but a digest would be nice.

Then we could all get our heads around why release 4.xxx is the one to have (or not).

I know, wishful thinking (*SIGH*).

[dbannon]

Re: With new releases...

"I wish that they would put up on a site (kernel.org?) a nice 3 page treatise that explains the "highlights" of the release, in somewhat general terms."

Subscribe to the Linux Journal - it has a nice chatty section about whats happening to the kernel each month. It does not focus on releases and is not complete but its an interesting look at some of the things being discussed and why some decisions are made. And its about 3 pages....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: With new releases...

Ahhhh. Grasshopper .. if you cannot decipher the highly technical content of the new release from the changelog .. you must go back to sweeping the floor!