The Wonderful World of Linux 2.6
Although it seems like only yesterday that we were booting up our first Linux 2.4 systems, time has ticked by and the kernel development team is nearing the completion of the v2.6 kernel. This document will attempt to describe many of the new features of the 2.6 kernel (with a heavy bias toward the i386 port of Linux.) Unlike the prerelease announcements of closed-source software, all of the features described here are available now (some more bug-free than others) in the Linux 2.5 development kernel. (By Linux tradition, even-numbered kernels are "stable" and for production systems, while odd numbered kernels are for the intrepid only.) That being said, some of the features described here could still be removed or marked as "experimental" in the actual 2.6 release. The kernel development is currently in a feature-freeze however and it is likely that the final release will not deviate much from what is described here, Please also be aware that some of the "new" features discussed here may have been back-ported to Linux 2.4 after first appearing in Linux 2.6, either officially or by a distribution vendor.
To make this document somewhat more complicated, the exact numbering of the upcoming version of Linux has not yet been decided upon. The most likely revision number is v2.6, but there have been suggestions that v3.0 may be chosen due to the inclusion of NUMA and MMU-less support in this upcoming version (more on that later). For convenience, this document will always be referring to the upcoming version of the kernel as v2.6 and in the present tense.
What you are reading is the first draft of this document, dated 7/13/2003 and based on the 2.5.75 development kernel. There will be other drafts released as the final work on the kernel is completed, but this document will not be "officially" closed until after the final release. As it is the first draft, there may be errors or omissions; if you notice either and let me know, I will be happy to fix them.
