Thoughts on 2.6.34

"So, as most people will have heard, the 2.6.34 kernel was released on May 16. Back in February, I was predicting a mid-May release, so I hit it almost exactly. That says nothing about my prediction skills, though (which are horrible) and a lot about how the kernel development process is going. It has become a very predictable, nearly boring affair.

"The cycle itself is highly predictable: kernel releases are routinely 10-12 weeks apart with little variation. This is a big change from the Good Old Days, when the 2.3 kernel was in "feature freeze" for over a year with no visible progress toward a release being made. We, as a community, have figured out how to create a predictable development cycle with little in the way of surprises. Getting there took a combination of discipline, experience, and improved tools, but now we have all three."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Kernel development statistics for 2.6.34 and beyond(May 14, 2010)
• The cpuidle subsystem(May 12, 2010)
• The case of the overly anonymous anon_vma(Apr 27, 2010)
• IBM and the labors of TurboHercules(Apr 15, 2010)
• Evi Nemeth (an Ada Lovelace day tribute)(Mar 24, 2010)
• 4K-sector drives and Linux(Mar 19, 2010)
• How old is our kernel?(Mar 01, 2010)