Bigger than big: Linux kernel colonel Torvalds claims 5.8 is 'one of our biggest releases of all time' Linus Torvalds has said that version 5.8 of the Linux kernel is "one of our biggest releases of all time". 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 …
I must be old school since I still think the following words of wisdom from C.A.R. Hoare to be relevant here: "There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult."
Obviously new features are being added to a complicated structure but overall (and being slightly cynical) either what came before was not up to the job or some the new stuff is bloatware ! (as in New Improved washing powder type claim every few years).
Something has to give eventually - at the current rate Linus will likely run out of local disk space for the kernel source code in 10 to 15 years time ?
Having a vast amount of code that is not normally used hardly gives one a good feeling about a well disciplined design process. Maybe a lot of it is device drivers for obscure devices, but even then one wonders.
Having lots of #ifs or optional modules does not make for easy understanding.
Actually this sort of 'major upgrade' makes me very happy. It essentially means that the underlying structure is mature and stable and is unlikely to break in new and interesting ways. It's an operating system FFS - the details of a new version should really only be of interest to a very niche group. Granted that probably includes a larger than normal percentage of the participants in here.
The longer we can avoid major perturbations like systemd (whichever side of that fence you are on) the more I like it.
Don't worry, Pete 2, if you don't run a Habana Labs Gaudi AI Training Processor, your copy of the kernel won't contain that code any more than it would contain the code for an S/390 on your cute little ARM system.
It's perfectly safe to rush out and upgrade ... likely you won't see any difference anyway, if all your hardware is already running properly. However, if all your hardware is already running properly (and you know of no security issues ...), there is probably no need to upgrade.
I avoid installing the first major release of anything. Wait until nn.nn.02 comes out.
However, I do keep just behind the bleeding edge of kernel releases. (This netbook I'm typing on is on 5.6.2). And every time I've compiled a custom kernel, which I do for every machine I use, it goes smoothly. No errors or warnings. The new kernel boots perfectly.
I'm pretty impressed by the overall quality of the development process.
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