“The market has been anxiously awaiting the final release, which
can be downloaded from www.kernel.org, even though some of the
features found in the kernel have already made their way into
vendors’ current Linux offerings. However, vendors are being
cautious about detailing exactly when the kernel itself will find
its way into their lineups.”
“While Red Hat Inc. has been developing the next version of
its Linux software around the 2.4 kernel, Melissa London, the
company’s director of corporate public relations, was evasive about
the exact timing of that release, saying it would be months rather
than weeks. “While we have been testing with the preliminary
releases of the kernel, we have only just begun to test the
compatibility of 2.4 across hardware and software packages,” she
said. “Once it is deemed stable enough, we will funnel it out to
users for upgrades on both our desktop and server products.”
“We want to put the 2.4 kernel in our products as soon as
possible and are waiting for the kernel to stabilize,” said Craig
Oda, vice president of alliances and product marketing at the
Brisbane, Calif., company. “We don’t expect the 2.4 kernel to be
really stable for the enterprise until at least version 2.4.4. …”
As a result, the kernel is unlikely to make its way into a
commercial Turbolinux server release before April or May, Oda
said.”