Linux kernel late but expected soon

Linus Torvalds has shipped a pre-release of the Linux 2.4 operating system kernel to developers and other beta testers, but is well behind his December 2000 deadline for releasing the finished product.

In a posting to Linux kernel developers, Torvalds explained that he had tried to finish the code but "had some last minute stuff that needed fixing - for example, the dirty page lists. The best I can do is make a pre-release of the promised kernel," he said.

Bill Claybrook, an analyst at the Aberdeen Group, said that the repeated delays in completing work on the new kernel are becoming reminiscent of the release problems that vendors such as Microsoft have had with software products. "People get a little bit discouraged by the repeated delays," he warned.

But Torvalds stressed that the delay would be kept to a minimum. "I want people to test it for a while and I want to give other architectures the chance to catch up with some of the changes, but no more recounts. There is no pre-release 1 to become pre-release 2 and so on," he said.

While it was hoped to release the final code by the end of December, testers got the pre-release instead. Torvalds had originally promised delivery of Version 2.4 about a year ago. An early version, Test10-Final release, was distributed in November.

Although Torvalds declined to say specifically when the final code would be ready, a few Linux executives said they expect it to ship before the last week of January when the LinuxWorld conference begins.

The 2.4 kernel will provide robustness and suitability for enterprise-level applications. One of the most significant features is symmetric multiprocessing scalability which could be an advantage to users who want to run corporate applications on Linux-based servers.

Also included will be the ability to address up to 64Gb of physical memory on x86 Intel servers and IA-32 platforms, and expanded hardware support with various new drivers for hardware like USB and 3D-accelerated graphics cards.

Support for various new architectures, like IBM's S/390 mainframe, IA-64 and eventually AMD's X86-64 architecture, will also be provided.