The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Kernel: What Is It?

“Sitting at the heart of every Linux OS distribution is a Linux
kernel. When it comes to the upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux
(RHEL) 6 release, the issue of which kernel is being used is not a
cut and dried answer, however.

“RHEL 6 is currently in its first beta release, with a feature
freeze now in place. Currently, the mainline Linux kernel is
nearing its 2.6.34 release, while the most recent stable release is
the 2.6.33 release, which came out in February. But instead of
either sticking with the 2.6.33 Linux kernel or holding out for
2.6.34, Red Hat is taking a different approach.

“”We do have pieces of 2.6.34, as well as the preceding kernel
versions in RHEL 6,” Tim Burke, vice president of platform
engineering at Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), told InternetNews.com. “So
there is no one [kernel version] number that accurately represents
the RHEL 6 kernel. We take what is upstream; if there are pieces
that are not mature, we disable them so they don’t disrupt things;
and there are some technology pieces that are further ahead that we
pull in.”

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