ZDNET: Consumer FAQ: Is Linux Y2K compliant?

Thanks to Sandeep for this link.

“Answer: Yes, but desktop and server Linux operating system
vendors say testing is still underway. It’s important to understand
two things about Linux Y2K compliance: 1.) All the same hardware
concerns that must be dealt with Windows systems also apply here,
the hardware BIOS and Real Time Clock (RTC) must be tested; 2.)
Linux is an operating system based on a Y2K-compliant kernel that
is differentiated by vendors who add a variety of tools to the
kernel that may not be compliant.”

“Like UNIX, the most widely used Linux kernel relies on a 32-bit
codebase that calculates the date and time by storing the number of
seconds since 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970. These operating
systems can store enough seconds to take the user reliably to the
year 2038. Some versions of Linux, for the Alpha and SPARC
processors, are 64-bit and can store so many seconds that the
operating system can handle dates for the billions of years.”

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