NewsForge: Is the 2.6 Kernel Ready for General Distribution?

“Mandrake 10 has it, SUSE’s rolling it out in 9.1, Gentoo has
had a ‘test’ version with it since last year, and now we’ll
probably see almost every commercial distribution move to 2.6.x
within the next month or two because of competitive pressure. This
is not in line with the basic ‘it’s ready when it’s ready’ dictum
that is given as the reason open source software is often
technically superior to proprietary competitors.

“One distribution developer I know feels pressured to come out
with a 2.6 version by May 1 at the latest. He believes downloads
and sales will suffer if his company’s products lag behind
others’.

“Why a May 1 deadline? Once again, a business imperative. IT
industry sales traditionally slow down during the summer months. In
many marketers’ eyes, there’s no point in releasing anything new
while people are thinking about vacations, not about buying new
hardware or software…”

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