In a message titled, “Super Kernel Sunday!” to the LKML (Linux Kernel Mailing List), Linus Torvalds announced news far more important than the Colts beating the Bears–to serious Linux users, anyway. The newest stable version of the Linux kernel, version 2.6.20, has been released.
Torvalds, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, went on: “Before downloading the actual new kernel, most avid kernel hackers have been involved in a 2-hour pre-kernel-compilation count-down, with some even spending the preceding week doing typing exercises and reciting PI to a thousand decimal places.”
And, Torvalds added, “As ICD head analyst Walter Dickweed put it: ‘Releasing a new kernel on Superbowl Sunday means that the important “pasty white nerd” constituency finally has something to do while the rest of the country sits comatose in front of their [65-inch] plasma screens.’”
After some more fun, Torvalds moved on to business. “I tried rather hard to make 2.6.20 largely a ‘stabilization release.’ Unlike a lot of kernels lately, there aren’t really any big fundamental changes to some core infrastructure area, and while we always have bugs, I really am hoping that we fixed many more than we introduced,” wrote Torvalds.
Read the full story on Linux-Watch: Super Kernel Sunday score: Linux 2.6.20, Vista 1.0
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