Linux 5.19

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=wgrz5BBk=rCz7W28Fj_o02s0Xi0OEQ3H1uQgOdFvHgx0w@mail.gmail.com/T/#u

by jrepinc • 4 years ago

72 33 4 years ago

lore.kernel.org

ah-• 4 years ago

    On a personal note, the most interesting part here is that I did the
    release (and am writing this) on an arm64 laptop. It's something I've
    been waiting for for a _loong_ time, and it's finally reality, thanks
    to the Asahi team. We've had arm64 hardware around running Linux for a
    long time, but none of it has really been usable as a development
    platform until now.
    
    It's the third time I'm using Apple hardware for Linux development - I
    did it many years ago for powerpc development on a ppc970 machine.
    And then a decade+ ago when the Macbook Air was the only real
    thin-and-lite around. And now as an arm64 platform.
    
    Not that I've used it for any real work, I literally have only been
    doing test builds and boots and now the actual release tagging. But
    I'm trying to make sure that the next time I travel, I can travel with
    this as a laptop and finally dogfooding the arm64 side too.

rowanG077• 4 years ago

Awesome! I remember Linus wanting to use the M1 macbooks but he was very somber on Linux working on there.

jasoneckert• 4 years ago

Ditto here - I've been using Asahi as my daily driver (development workstation) for over 3 months now with no plans on changing from it any time soon: https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/asahi-linux/

blt• 4 years ago

excitedly waiting for video output and sleep to work on the laptops!

tux1968• 4 years ago

For anyone else that didn't know, Asahi is Linux crafted for the Apple M1 chip:

https://asahilinux.org/about/

nequo• 4 years ago

I like the evolutionary approach of the Linux kernel's development model means that version numbers are arbitrary labels:

    Anyway, regardless of all that, this obviously
    means that the merge window (*) will open tomorrow.
    [...]

    (*) I'll likely call it 6.0 since I'm starting to
    worry about getting confused by big numbers again.

The new version of the Linux kernel is out and we can just get on with our lives.

sph7• 4 years ago

I don't think there's anything good or insightful in Linus' approach to version numbers. I think he just doesn't care about it at all, and so why not have some fun.

In my view version numbers either have a significance (semver & co.) or just get rid of it and use something derived from a date. Because why is it 5.19 then 6.0 and not sqrt(2) and tomorrow we try negative numbers?

No software depends on a specific kernel version number, thankfully, so as a sysadmin I'd rather have Linux 2022.5.2 (year.sequential-number.patch) than 5.19. Possibly unpopular idea since I get bashed every time I criticize Linux and its versioning, as if I shouldn't dare question it.

NullPrefix• 4 years ago

Negative numbers would be hard to parse. Is Linux-5.19 version -5.19, the negative, or 5.19, the positive?

heywoodlh• 4 years ago

That's an interesting perspective. I am also a sysadmin and I sometimes care about the kernel I run (I run the Zen kernel on my XPS running Arch), but I also don't really find much value in the version number unless it has a feature I need/want. Like you, it wouldn't add or detract for me to know that a feature I want is in kernel 5.19 vs version 2022.5.2.

Huh, although, the one question I'm not sure about would be LTS releases. For some reason -- in my head, at least -- it feels unorganized to mark a version based on date as an LTS. I guess Ubuntu does that and it doesn't bother me but for some reason I have a double standard with the kernel.

Tangent: is there an official timeline where the decided support lifetime for the kernel versions are? Something like Ubuntu's lifecycle table[1]? I ask because there was one time I was gonna run 5.10 but wasn't sure when it was EOL because Greg K H was going to shorten it but then decided to extend it.

[1] https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle

brianhorakh• 4 years ago

Hopefully rust language enhancements will finally merge into Linux 6.0

i believe Linus knows how significant RUST would be for multi-arch linux. This benign version bump should give all the C++ devs plenty of headroom to stay in a stable 5.x while the rustaceans oxidize the kernel ecosystem to make it (more) architecturally neutral, typesafe, easier to dev modules and more secure. Ive been a linux user since 0.97 and I can't recall being this excited about the future!

CaliforniaKarl• 4 years ago

C++? The Linux kernel is written in C, not C++.

smegsicle• 4 years ago

must be confusing linux kernel with windows kernel

happens all the time

sph7• 4 years ago

I don't think Linus cares about Rust at all. He's been hands off about it, he knows kernel devs would like to adopt it so he's neutral, but I'll bet a tenner he will not start writing Rust anytime soon, and, if I can be so presumptuous to make assumptions, I don't think he's much of a fan, for many of the same reasons he prefers C over C++. I think Linus would be more of a Zig guy.

I'm being tongue in cheek here, please do not read too much into this.

claudiojulio• 4 years ago

C++ is insecure in memory and has infinite unexpected behavior. Rust, on the other hand, does not compare with it, as it is safe. Linus doesn't like C++ because it sucks.

giancarlostoro• 4 years ago

I think Linus would be more of a Zig guy.

I think he'd just prefer to keep using C but I could be wrong. It feels like he is definitely married to C. If there was another language I felt he would adopt, it would of been Go had Go not adopted a GC.

You can learn the standard libraries of both and 10 years later they still are mostly the same. It is pretty commendable.

edgyquant• 4 years ago

This is a perfect example of the type of blatantly ignorant (in the real meaning) message common on Reddit. The confidence with which you’ve just spoke out of your ass is astounding.

yjftsjthsd-h2• 4 years ago

how significant RUST would be for multi-arch linux

Er, isn't Rust's list of target architectures a subset of Linux's? Maybe after the Rust GCC frontend is prod-quality it would at least not be a regression (outside of architecture specific drivers)...

gigel82• 4 years ago

Oh no, is Linus switching over to the dark side? (using an Apple laptop)

have_faith• 4 years ago

Didn’t he use an Air for many years?

jjice• 4 years ago

Yeah, he mentions this is his third Apple machine. He doesn't have anything against the hardware as far as I'm aware - just wants Linux to run on it.

darthrupert• 4 years ago

X86 might not be the dark side, but it feels every day more and more like the Dark Age.

pkrumins• 4 years ago

I just checked and I still have some older servers running 2.6.22 from almost 10 years ago. I like the saying: if it ain’t broke don’t upgrade it.

yjftsjthsd-h2• 4 years ago

If it's truly not broken (especially no security exposure), then sure, but that's rare, and Linux is good enough about backwards compatibility that there's generally no reason not to use a newer kernel.

Linux 5.19

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