Linux kernel gets quick fix
Linus Torvalds has released a new kernel, or core, for the Linux operating system just two days after the previous release, fixing a bug that had made its way into kernel version 2.4.11.
Version 2.4.11, released on Tuesday, included a bug fix to protect against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, but this bug-fix itself caused problems with SuSE's version of the operating system. Torvalds said in a message on the kernel.org Web site that he hastily repaired the problem after receiving a report that someone using SuSE with the 2.4.11 kernel had encountered problems.
"I made a 2.4.12, and renamed away the sorry excuse for a kernel that 2.4.11 was," Torvalds said on the site.
The new kernel is available from www.kernel.org, which also lists various mirror Web sites.
Linux is a Unix-like operating system developed on an open-source model, which requires developers to pass their improvements along to other programmers. It is favoured by scientists because of its Unix roots, but is also popular as a Web server and is gaining ground in the workstation and desktop markets against Microsoft's Windows.
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