Linux kernel 6.0 debuts, Linus Torvalds teases ‘core new things’ coming in version 6.1

Linus Torvalds has released a stable cut of version 6.0 of the Linux kernel. “As is hopefully clear to everybody, the major version number change is more about me running out of fingers and toes than it is about any big fundamental changes,” Torvalds wrote in his release announcement. Torvalds rated version 6.0 “one of the …

[Dan 55]

"ancient Atari personal computers"

AKA Atari Falcon... this kind of information is very important to include for aging comentards.

Although would the rest of Linux even fit into an Atari Falcon, seeing as that's been collecting some middle-aged spread lately too.

[Binraider]

Re: "ancient Atari personal computers"

The falcon is at the top of my retro computer wish list. And to think Linux for 68030 is still being actively worked on this far down the line!

[amanfromMars 1]

Clarification please, ....

..... for to not aid and abet critical architecture ambiguity is both a national and international security issue

Support for RISC-V advanced on several fronts. So did work to address the LoongArch architecture that China has backed as a candidate indigenous technology to reduce dependence on imported tech.

Linus, Hi,

Is that work, to address the LoongArch architecture that China has backed as a candidate indigenous technology to reduce dependence on imported tech, in support of China’s efforts/abilities/facilities/utilities, or otherwise? There is a valid need to know to guarantee future systemic supporter systems support and encouragement/adoption and deployment.

Silence in these sorts of emerging and expanding matters is dull and leaden and not bright and golden.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Clarification please, ....

Imports? Imports to where, exactly? I expect more naughty boxes run on Linux than any other OS. We should ban organised crime and traffic violators from contributing to the kernel! Rant! Snort!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Clarification please, ....

I would say Windows.

Maybe Android.

[skotl]

Re: Clarification please, ....

(ignoring the content of your post) You think Linus is making decisions based on the comments he reads on El Reg? If you're that concerned then join the actual Linux community.

[amanfromMars 1]

Re: Clarification please, .... for stranger things have surely happened many times before

(ignoring the content of your post) You think Linus is making decisions based on the comments he reads on El Reg? If you're that concerned then join the actual Linux community. .... skotl

:-) A scathing opinion most probably based upon a very short membership of The Register community and the depth and breadth and spread of knowledge of its surprisigly agile myriad and enthusiastically long stakeholders/supporters/readers, skotl.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Clarification please, ....

@amanfromMars 1

"Is that work, to address the LoongArch architecture that China has backed as a candidate indigenous technology to reduce dependence on imported tech, in support of China’s efforts/abilities/facilities/utilities, or otherwise?"

I would have thought it obvious.The clue is in the phrase you used... "China has backed as a candidate indigenous technology to reduce dependence on imported tech".

Happily, you have not let me down. Your usual unfathomable comments (totally not deliberately written that way of course) pale into insignificance when compared to this gem... "There is a valid need to know to guarantee future systemic supporter systems support and encouragement/adoption and deployment"

I won't ask what it means because I doubt you know. I didn't know that site "bullshit speak" was still around

[amanfromMars 1]

A Peer of the Realm and Class ACT Role Model to Follow and Emulate/Stimulate/Energise

So, in other words, Lis, just to make everything more perfectly clear and unambiguous, are you you are saying Linus is aiding and abetting China’s efforts/abilities/facilities/utilities to reduce dependence on imported tech .... which would be undoubtedly noble and well worthy of any and all manner of magnanimous mutually beneficial positively reinforcing support .

Does Linus know?

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Clarification please, ....

"amanfromMars" usually transmits superficially plausible nonsense. This time, he seems to be trying to make sense.

Anyway, yes, when China conquers the world and makes us all use their LoongArch computers, we will be able to install and run Linux... but we will not be allowed to. But if Microsoft or Apple or Samsung conquered the world instead, then that situation would be the same.

And in the meantime, your next TV or wristwatch (these are guesses) with LoongArch Inside, can also run Linux.

[david 12]

Insecure SMB1?

SMB1 is a network protocol. It's not inherently "Insecure". The SMB1 component is just another attack surface, which should be closed if not in use.

[david 12]

Re: Insecure SMB1?

I invite the anonymous down voters to link to information describing the "insecurity" of SMB1

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Insecure SMB1?

> SMB1 is a network protocol. It's not inherently "Insecure".

Why shouldn't a network protocol be considered inherently insecure? Telnet as an example is considered inherently insecure as it involves sending the username and password over the network in plain text. SSH1 has known exploitable weaknesses

I remember being shown a tool years back (in the 90s) which listened into the SMB traffic on a network and quickly showed a list of the Windows usernames on the network. Slowly it then filled in the list with the users' passwords.

As I recall the tool used ARP spoofing to get the switch to forward packets to the guy's laptop. The SMB traffic regularly contained the username and password hashes. This allows the tool to quickly list the names. The password hashes were then fed into a guessing tool much like Cracker or John the Ripper in the Unix world which provided the list of passwords.

As well as showing the inherent weakness of the protocol it also showed that someone had connected the training and production together somewhere at ABC (A Big Company) and we had to get everyone on site to change their passwords.

Is this the type of weakness you're asking for?

MS killed off SMB1 years ago in Windows, or at least disabled it because of known issues.

In the Unix/Linux world there were extensions to SMB1 which allowed things like UIDs & GIDs to be carried where both the server and client are Unix like.

[david 12]

Re: Insecure SMB1?

That is fair enough, but by that criteria IPV6 and SMB2 and SMB3 (which is a version of SMB2) share the same 'insecurity' and should be disabled at the same time.

IPV6 contains provision for IPSEC security, which is not commonly used: SMB from Windows 98 was not used with packet signing or packet encryption, allowing MiM attacks.

If you are worried about things like telnet, then you should not use Win98 without the Win2K compatiblity update that permitted packet signing and secure-channel encryption.

SMB1 was replaced with SMB2 because SMB1 was chatty and verbose, which, when implemented over IPV4 with encryption and signing, added latency. The latency was addressed by SMB2.

More recently, AES has been added to the SMB encryption suite, and the Win Server 2019 SMB component defaults to secure channel for all communications. That's an improvement in security. It doesn't magically mean all communications without AES are "insecure", or that the more chatty protocol was magically "insecure", or that SMB1 was specifically and equally as "insecure" as NFS, and it doesn't address the "insecurity" of SMB3 used with non-AES Windows and SAMBA servers.

[Solviva]

If major releases tend to occur once Linus runs out of digits, what happens post Linux 19.19 - will Linus need to look into getting extra digits surgically applied?

[BenDwire]

Don't worry, he'll put his hands in his pockets ....

[A.P. Veening]

If major releases tend to occur once Linus runs out of digits, what happens post Linux 19.19 - will Linus need to look into getting extra digits surgically applied?

I expect Linus will only run into problems after 21.21.

[Androgynous Cupboard]

That would be "on or after 21.21" or you've got him mixed up with Julian Assange, or perhaps Count Rugen from The Princess Bride.

</pedantry>, but I don't feel too bad about it given this forum. And I correspondingly anticipate comments about unbalanced tags in 3... 2...

[MrDamage]

23.23. Meat AND 2 veg.

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't he from Finland? Isn't Finland cold?

I think the best he could manage would be 20.20.

[Youngone]

...will Linus need to look into getting extra digits surgically applied?

He will have an extra arm attached. This will also improve his ski-boxing.

[Will Godfrey]

I make it 31.31 with just both hands.

[dajames]

I make it 31.31 with just both hands.

Are you suggesting Linus is non-binary?

[IGnatius T Foobar !]

Running out of fingers and toes?

Perhaps it's time for Linux to stop using semantic versioning and just go to a straight numeric sequence of build numbers with no decimals in it.

[CRConrad]

Hmm...

If it's down to anatomy, one would think the versions could go up to 21.21.21 before the numbers have to roll over.