New Linux kernel adds file-system support
Summary: Linux 2.6.30 has been released with support for new file systems, along with performance improvements and new hardware drivers.
The Linux kernel is the core used by GNU/Linux operating system distributions from Red Hat, Novell Suse and others. The new release was finalised on Tuesday, and was publicized in a post from Linux developer Linus Torvalds on Wednesday.
The most prominent new features include support for two new filesystems, according to release notes published by Kernelnewbies, a group of Linux developers.
Support was added or updated for the NILFS2 filesystem, still under development, which is designed to be more resistant to crashes; and for POHMELFS (Parallel Optimized Host Message Exchange Layered File System), a high-performance and network distributed file system.
The kernel also comes with updated support for other filesystems, including EXOFS, a file system for object-based storage devices, and the FS-Cache filesystem. Tweaks have been made to generally improve file system performance, Kernelnewbies said.
Storage improvements include the addition of support for DST, a technology designed to simplify the creation of high-performance storage networks.
The kernel adds a feature contributed by Intel for speeding up the kernel's boot time by carrying out several steps of the boot process at once. "This feature speeds up the total kernel boot time significantly," Kernelnewbies wrote in their notes on the release.
Other changes include allowing the use of LZMA and Bzip2 compression of kernel images, so that they take up less space; and new or updated drivers that add support for additional hardware and hardware features.
A new architecture for putting hardware into suspend mode has been put into place, according to Torvalds. "We're hopefully now done with the suspend/resume irq re-architecting, and have switched to a new world order," he wrote in the newslist post.
This article was originally published on ZDNet UK.
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Talkback
The innovation going on in the Linux kernel is simply amazing!
I agree
development.
yet another useless file system
But but but!
If by kernel you mean "kernel source"
If I didn't have some sense of decency.
So how's WinFS working out for you?
The ignorance of the windows fanboy
use them.
Different uses benefit from different file systems because they're
designed for different purposes. New file systems don't replace older
ones, they provide more choice.
Useless file system? Aw... come on....!
However... WinFS - where'd it go? Still vapourware? Binned and forgotten?
Linux is where the true pioneering spirit is kicking in. I see development going on with the kernel and the adoption of potential FS from the mundane to the cutting edge and I can't help feeling a little envious. POHMELFS itself sounds extremely promising and Linux will offer that "out of the box" - not mandated to run one FS like NTFS and supporting other file systems as and when they are deemed useful.
Windows fanboys - I know that W7 and W2k8R2 are going to offer all kinds of wonderful tools, but a little respect for the "opposition" might hold us in good stead and we may find that as time goes on our Windows installations might offer us the same degree of choice we can see in the Linux camp...
Typical Linux
the market. It's because this is further proof
that they still cannot settle on anything.
There is so much unfinished garbage polluting
distro repositories. Linux is one big perpetual
beta and always will be.
Until the Linux community comes together,
shrinks down the number of distros so they can
use their collective intelligence to actually
polish something, they will always be last
place. Start with helping the Evolution team
with their sad excuse of an Exchange plugin.
Here's a suggestion; use EWS instead of a
protocol that's likely to be phased out with
the next release of Exchange, MAPI. Apple got
it right.
Too funny.....
Sorry to upset your narrow world but Open Source is the future and Windows monolithic Server will be a distant memory since appliances will be the next caveat....
Even funnier...
even though I made no mention of Windows what-so-
ever. And I'm narrow minded, LOL. Don't you
possibly think I was considering the desktop
market which they do hold less than 1%, hmmm?
Why do you assume...
Wow way to miss the point entirely.
> Too funny
> Source is the future and Windows monolithic
> Server [...]
Open Source has been the future since at least 1995, when I got my first Debian and later on Red Hat distros. It has been future for no less than 15 years, and it's still there. It's like the horizon - the closer you get to it, the further it gets. That specifically applies to the desktop distros. The server distros have managed to establish their presence in the enterprises, and benchmark numbers justify respect for them.
As for the Windows Server called "monolithic", someone missed the last few years of Windows Server technology development. Perhaps that someone was too busy compiling and recompiling customized builds of the kernel until "kernel panic" message no longer appeared during booting... just poking fun.
And apple likely licensed the exchange part
is going to step up and pay MS to add in
seamless exchange support.
Personally I would love to see a company pick
up a promising distro, and make it have an
appearance on the market, and actually get some
marketing, and get it pushed out there where
software developers start writing there
software for the linux kernel. I would like to
see software installations get streamlined for
simpler installs.
It would be great to have another competitor on
the market giving more choice.
See, when you have a product
to give you desired functionality, to increase your product's appeal to
make even more money, etc., etc.
You're information is wrong.
Who registers Linux to begin with?
argue its market share that closely. I really
don't care if it's 1%-4% and the 3% MS lost went
to Apple, not the 300+ linux distros out there.
Won't happen until someone finds a way to make
of year in support fees.