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Video: Torvalds surprised by resilience of 2.6 kernel

Linus Torvalds explains why the unexpected resilience of kernel version 2.6 has delayed the move to version 2.7
Written by Chris Duckett, Contributor and  Munir Kotadia, Contributor

In part three of our five-part interview with Linus Torvalds, he explains why the unexpected resilience of kernel version 2.6 has delayed the move to kernel version 2.7. He reveals that when work started on 2.6, he was worried that major changes would destabilise the kernel.

On the second day of Linux.conf.au in Sydney, Linus Torvalds revealed that he was surprised by the resilience of the 2.6

"One of the original worries was that we would not be able to make big changes within the confines of the development model… I always said that if there is something so fundamental that everything will break, then we will start at 2.7 at that point... We have been able to do fairly invasive things even while not actually destabilising the kernel. It has surprised me and other people how well we have been able to do big changes that did not cause havoc."

He added: "Sometimes it has been slightly painful."

To all Linux users: this video is presented in Flash 8 and has been tested successfully for use with Linux systems running the latest Flash plug-in for Linux (ver. 9.0). Currently, this version is not available from Adobe for those running 64-bit Linux.

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