This article documents the version history of the Linux kernel.
Each major version – identified by the first two numbers of a release version – is designated one of the following levels of support:
Version | Original release date | Last release | Maintainer | EOL | Prominent features | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6.13 | TBD | 6.13-rc2 [3] | Linus Torvalds | |||
6.12 | 17 November 2024 [4] | 6.12.5 [5] | Linus Torvalds | 25th LTS release [8] | ||
6.11 | 15 September 2024 [9] | 6.11.11 [10] | Linus Torvalds |
| ||
6.10 | 14 July 2024 [13] | 6.10.14 [10] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin | 10 October 2024 [14] |
| Named "Baby Opossum Posse" [16] |
6.9 | 12 May 2024 [1] | 6.9.10 [10] | 27 July 2024 [17] |
| ||
6.8 | 10 March 2024 [1] | 6.8.12 [10] | 30 May 2024 [20] | |||
6.7 | 8 January 2024 [1] | 6.7.12 [10] | 3 April 2024 |
| According to Linus Torvalds, "one of the largest kernel releases we've ever had" [21] | |
6.6 | 30 October 2023 [1] | 6.6.64 [10] | December 2026 |
| 24th LTS release The CFS scheduler was the de facto standard for 16+ years ReiserFS is now declared to be obsolete and flagged for removal in 2025. The one last minute change was made to the credits of ReiserFS as requested from the original developer. | |
6.5 | 27 August 2023 [1] | 6.5.13 [10] | 28 November 2023 [24] | |||
6.4 | 25 June 2023 [1] | 6.4.16 [10] | 13 September 2023 [26] |
| ||
6.3 | 23 April 2023 [1] | 6.3.13 [10] | 11 July 2023 [30] |
| ||
6.2 | 19 February 2023 [1] | 6.2.16 [10] | 17 May 2023 [31] |
| ||
6.1 | 11 December 2022 [32] | 6.1.119 [10] 6.1.106-cip27 [33] | December 2026 [1] August 2033 [34] |
| 23rd LTS release Used in Debian 12 "Bookworm" [39] 4th SLTS release (which CIP [40] is planning [34] to support until August 2033) 6.1.28 is named Curry Ramen [41] | |
6.0 | 2 October 2022 [42] | 6.0.19 [43] | January 2023 [43] | Named "Hurr durr I'ma[ sic ] ninja sloth" [46] | ||
Legend: Old version, not maintained Old version, still maintained Latest version Latest preview version |
Version | Original release date | Last release | Maintainer | EOL | Prominent features | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5.19 | 31 July 2022 [47] | 5.19.17 [48] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin [1] | October 2022 [48] |
| |
5.18 | 22 May 2022 [52] | 5.18.19 [53] | August 2022 [53] | |||
5.17 | 20 March 2022 [61] | 5.17.15 [62] | June 2022 [62] | Used in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on newer hardware [69] Named Superb Owl [70] | ||
5.16 | 9 January 2022 [71] | 5.16.20 [72] | April 2022 [72] | |||
5.15 | 31 October 2021 [77] | 5.15.173 [10] | December 2026 [1] | 22nd LTS release; used in Named Trick or Treat [83] | ||
5.14 | 29 August 2021 [84] | 5.14.21 [85] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | November 2021 [85] | Used in RHEL 9.x and derivatives [86] (Redhat ignores LTS-Kernel, own kernel-backports) and SLE 15 SP4/openSUSE Leap 15.4 | |
5.13 | 27 June 2021 [87] | 5.13.19 [88] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin | September 2021 [88] |
| Named Opossums on Parade |
5.12 | 25 April 2021 [91] | 5.12.19 [92] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | July 2021 [92] | Named Frozen Wasteland [93] [94] | |
5.11 | 14 February 2021 [95] | 5.11.22 [96] | May 2021 [96] | Named "💕 Valentine's Day Edition 💕" [97] | ||
5.10 | 13 December 2020 [98] | 5.10.230 [10] 5.10.223-cip51 [33] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin [1] | December 2026 [1] [99] January 2031 [34] | 21st LTS release; used in Debian 11 "Bullseye" [100] 3rd SLTS release (which CIP [101] is planning [34] to support until January 2031) Named "Dare mighty things" [102] | |
5.9 | 11 October 2020 [103] | 5.9.16 [104] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | December 2020 [104] | ||
5.8 | 2 August 2020 [105] | 5.8.18 [106] | November 2020 [106] | |||
5.7 | 31 May 2020 [107] | 5.7.19 [108] | August 2020 [108] | |||
5.6 | 29 March 2020 [109] | 5.6.19 [110] | June 2020 [110] | |||
5.5 | 26 January 2020 [112] | 5.5.19 [113] | April 2020 [113] | |||
5.4 | 24 November 2019 [114] | 5.4.286 [10] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin [1] | December 2025 [1] | 20th LTS release, used in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4-rc2 is named Nesting Opossum [115] 5.4-rc5 is named Kleptomaniac Octopus [116] | |
5.3 | 15 September 2019 [117] | 5.3.18 [118] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | December 2019 [118] | ||
5.2 | 7 July 2019 [119] | 5.2.20 [120] | October 2019 [120] | 5.2-rc2 is named Golden Lions [121] [122] 5.2 is named Bobtail Squid [123] | ||
5.1 | 5 May 2019 [124] | 5.1.21 [125] | July 2019 [125] |
| ||
5.0 | 3 March 2019 [127] | 5.0.21 [128] | June 2019 [128] | |||
Legend: Old version, not maintained Old version, still maintained |
Version | Original release date | Last release | Maintainer | EOL | Prominent features | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.20 | 23 December 2018 [129] | 4.20.17 [130] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | March 2019 [130] | Named Shy Crocodile [131] | |
4.19 | 22 October 2018 [132] | 4.19.325 [10] 4.19.320-cip112 [33] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin [1] | December 2024 [1] [133] January 2029 [34] | 19th LTS release. Used in Debian 10 "Buster". [134] Second SLTS release (which CIP is planning [34] to support until January 2029), and first with ARM64 support. [135] Named "People's Front" [136] | |
4.18 | 12 August 2018 [137] | 4.18.20 [138] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | November 2018 [138] | RHEL 8.x (Redhat ignores LTS-Kernel, own kernel-backports) | |
4.17 | 3 June 2018 [139] | 4.17.19 [140] | August 2018 [140] | Named Merciless Moray [141] | ||
4.16 | 1 April 2018 [142] | 4.16.18 [143] | June 2018 [143] | |||
4.15 | 28 January 2018 [144] | 4.15.18 [145] | April 2018 [145] | Used in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | ||
4.14 | 12 November 2017 [146] | 4.14.336 [147] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin [1] | January 2024 [147] | 18th LTS release 4.14.1 is named Petit Gorille [149] | |
4.13 | 3 September 2017 [150] | 4.13.16 [151] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | November 2017 [151] | ||
4.12 | 2 July 2017 [152] | 4.12.14 [153] | September 2017 [153] | |||
4.11 | 30 April 2017 [155] | 4.11.12 [156] | July 2017 [156] | |||
4.10 | 19 February 2017 [157] | 4.10.17 [158] | May 2017 [158] | 4.10-rc5 was named Anniversary Edition [159] | ||
4.9 | 11 December 2016 [161] | 4.9.337 [10] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin [1] | January 2023 [1] [162] | 17th LTS release. Used in Debian 9 "Stretch". [163] Named Roaring Lionus [164] [165] | |
4.8 | 25 September 2016 [166] | 4.8.17 [167] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | January 2017 [167] | ||
4.7 | 24 July 2016 [168] | 4.7.10 [169] | October 2016 [169] | Named Psychotic Stoned Sheep [173] | ||
4.6 | 15 May 2016 [174] | 4.6.7 [175] | August 2016 [175] | Named Charred Weasel [176] | ||
4.5 | 13 March 2016 [177] | 4.5.7 [178] | June 2016 [179] | |||
4.4 | 10 January 2016 [180] | 4.4.302 [181] 4.4.302-cip92 [182] | Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin [1] (until February 2022 [181] ) Nobuhiro Iwamatsu & Pavel Machek [34] | January 2027 [34] | 16th LTS release, used in Slackware 14.2. [183] Canonical provided extended support until April 2021. [184] As the first kernel selected for Super Long Term Support (SLTS), the Civil Infrastructure Platform will provide support until at least 2026. [2] Used in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | |
4.3 | 1 November 2015 [185] | 4.3.6 [186] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | February 2016 [187] | Named Blurry Fish Butt [188] [189] | |
4.2 | 30 August 2015 [190] | 4.2.8 [191] | December 2015 [191] | Canonical provided extended support until July 2016. [192] [193] | ||
4.1 | 22 June 2015 [194] | 4.1.52 [195] | Sasha Levin [1] [196] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) [197] | May 2018 [195] | 15th LTS release. 4.1.1 was named Series 4800 [198] | |
4.0 | 12 April 2015 [199] | 4.0.9 [200] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | July 2015 [201] |
| Named "Hurr durr I'ma[ sic ] sheep" [203] (Internet poll) |
Legend: Old version, not maintained Old version, still maintained |
The jump from 2.6.x to 3.x wasn't because of a breaking update, but rather the first release of a new versioning scheme introduced as a more convenient system. [204]
Version | Original release date | Last release | Maintainer | EOL | Prominent features | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3.19 | 8 February 2015 [205] | 3.19.8 [206] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | May 2015 [206] | Canonical provided extended support until July 2016. [192] [207] | |
3.18 | 7 December 2014 [208] | 3.18.140 [209] | Greg Kroah-Hartman [210] (formerly Sasha Levin [211] )(formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) | January 2017 [212] | 14th LTS release, named Diseased Newt [215] Hartman stated that he will release irregular updates to the 3.18 tree. [216] Starting with 3.18.140, this version will no longer be maintained on kernel.org, but on AOSP | |
3.17 | 5 October 2014 [217] | 3.17.8 [218] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | January 2015 [218] | ||
3.16 | 3 August 2014 [219] | 3.16.85 [220] | Ben Hutchings [1] [221] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) | Maintained until October 2014, then May 2016 to June 2020 [220] [1] [222] | 13th LTS release. Was used in Debian 8 "Jessie". [223] Canonical provided extended support until April 2016. [192] [224] 3.16.1 was named Museum of Fishiegoodies [225] | |
3.15 | 8 June 2014 [226] | 3.15.10 [227] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | August 2014 [227] | ||
3.14 | 30 March 2014 [229] | 3.14.79 [230] | Greg Kroah-Hartman [1] | August 2016 [230] | 12th LTS release, named Shuffling Zombie Juror [232] | |
3.13 | 19 January 2014 [233] | 3.13.11 [234] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | April 2014 [234] | Canonical provided extended support until April 2016. [192] [235] Named One Giant Leap for Frogkind [236] (NASA LADEE launch photo) [237] Used in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | |
3.12 | 3 November 2013 [238] | 3.12.74 [239] | Jiří Slabý [1] [240] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) | May 2017 [240] [239] | 11th LTS release, named Suicidal Squirrel [241] | |
3.11 | 2 September 2013 [242] | 3.11.10 [243] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | November 2013 [243] | Canonical provided extended support until August 2014. [192] Named Linux for Workgroups after the 20 years of Windows 3.11 [245] | |
3.10 | 30 June 2013 [246] | 3.10.108 [247] | Willy Tarreau [1] [248] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) | November 2017 [247] | 10th LTS release, 3.10.6 was named TOSSUG Baby Fish [250] [251] [252] used in Slackware 14.1 [253] RHEL 7.x | |
3.9 | 28 April 2013 [254] | 3.9.11 [255] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | July 2013 [255] | 3.9.6 was named Black Squirrel Wakeup Call [259] | |
3.8 | 18 February 2013 [260] | 3.8.13 [261] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | May 2013 [261] | Canonical provided extended support until August 2014. [192] [264] Named Unicycling Gorilla [265] [266] | |
3.7 | 10 December 2012 [268] | 3.7.10 [269] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | March 2013 [269] [270] | Named Terrified Chipmunk [272] [273] | |
3.6 | 30 September 2012 [274] | 3.6.11 [275] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | December 2012 [275] |
| |
3.5 | 21 July 2012 [277] | 3.5.7 [278] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | October 2012 [278] | Canonical provided extended support until April 2014. [192] [279] | |
3.4 | 20 May 2012 [280] [281] | 3.4.113 [282] | Li Zefan [1] [283] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) | October 2016 [284] | 9th LTS release | |
3.3 | 18 March 2012 [285] | 3.3.8 [286] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | June 2012 [286] | ||
3.2 | 4 January 2012 [287] | 3.2.102 [288] | Ben Hutchings [1] [289] | May 2018 [290] | 8th LTS release, used in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS [291] and optionally in 12.04 ESM, [292] Debian 7 "Wheezy" and Slackware 14.0. [1] [289] Canonical promised to (at least) provide long-term support until April 2017; [192] Support has continued for months after. | |
3.1 | 24 October 2011 [294] | 3.1.10 [295] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | January 2012 [295] | 3.1 provided the base for real-time tree. 3.1-rc2 was named Wet Seal 3.1 was named Divemaster Edition [296] (Linus' diving activities) | |
3.0 | 21 July 2011 [204] | 3.0.101 [297] | Greg Kroah-Hartman [298] | October 2013 [297] [298] | 7th LTS release Named Sneaky Weasel [300] [301] | |
Legend: Old version |
Versions 2.6.16 and 2.6.27 of the Linux kernel were unofficially given long-term support (LTS), [302] before a 2011 working group in the Linux Foundation started a formal long-term support initiative. [303] [304]
Version | Original release date | Last release | Maintainer | EOL | Prominent features | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2.6.39 | 18 May 2011 [305] | 2.6.39.4 [306] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | August 2011 [306] | Last stable release of the 2.6 kernel series | |
2.6.38 | 14 March 2011 [307] | 2.6.38.8 [308] | June 2011 [308] | Named Flesh-Eating Bats with Fangs [309] | ||
2.6.37 | 4 January 2011 [310] | 2.6.37.6 [311] | March 2011 [311] | |||
2.6.36 | 20 October 2010 [312] | 2.6.36.4 [313] | February 2011 [313] | |||
2.6.35 | 1 August 2010 [315] | 2.6.35.14 [316] | Andi Kleen [317] | March 2012 [317] | 6th LTS release 2.6.35.7 was named Yokohama | |
2.6.34 | 16 May 2010 [318] | 2.6.34.15 [319] | Paul Gortmaker [320] | February 2014 [319] [320] | 5th LTS release It was named Sheep on Meth [321] [322] | |
2.6.33 | 24 February 2010 [323] | 2.6.33.20 [324] | Greg Kroah-Hartman [325] | November 2011 [324] | 4th LTS release. It was the base for real-time-tree, replaced by 3.0.x. [325] | |
2.6.32 | 2 December 2009 [327] | 2.6.32.71 [328] | Willy Tarreau [1] [329] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) [330] [331] | March 2016 [1] | 3rd LTS release, used in Debian 6 Squeeze. [333] Canonical also provided support until April 2015. [192] RHEL 6.x | |
2.6.31 | 9 September 2009 [334] | 2.6.31.14 [335] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | July 2010 [335] | ||
2.6.30 | 9 June 2009 [337] | 2.6.30.9 [338] | October 2009 [338] |
| 2.6.30-rc4–2.6.30-rc6 was named Vindictive Armadillo [340] [341] | |
2.6.29 | 23 March 2009 [343] | 2.6.29.6 [344] | July 2009 [344] | Named Temporary Tasmanian Devil [346] [347] | ||
2.6.28 | 24 December 2008 [348] | 2.6.28.10 [349] | May 2009 [349] | 2.6.28-rc1–2.6.28-rc6 was named Killer Bat of Doom [351] [352] | ||
2.6.27 | 9 October 2008 [354] | 2.6.27.62 [355] | Willy Tarreau [356] (formerly Adrian Bunk, [357] and formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) | March 2012 [357] | 2nd LTS release 2.6.27.3 was named Trembling Tortoise [358] | |
2.6.26 | 13 July 2008 [359] | 2.6.26.8 [360] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | November 2008 [360] | 2.6.26–2.6.27 was named Rotary Wombat [361] | |
2.6.25 | 16 April 2008 [362] | 2.6.25.20 [363] | November 2008 [363] | Named Funky Weasel is Jiggy wit it [365] | ||
2.6.24 | 24 January 2008 [366] | 2.6.24.7 [367] | May 2008 [367] | 2.6.23-rc4–2.6.23-rc6 was named Pink Farting Weasel [369] 2.6.23-rc7–2.6.23–2.6.24 was named Arr Matey! A Hairy Bilge Rat! [370] (TLAPD 2007) | ||
2.6.23 | 9 October 2007 [372] | 2.6.23.17 [373] | February 2008 [373] | |||
2.6.22 | 8 July 2007 [375] | 2.6.22.19 [376] | February 2008 [376] | 2.6.22-rc3–2.6.22-rc4 was named Jeff Thinks I Should Change This, But To What? 2.6.22-rc5–2.6.22 was named Holy Dancing Manatees, Batman! [378] | ||
2.6.21 | 25 April 2007 [379] | 2.6.21.7 [380] | August 2007 [380] | Named Nocturnal Monster Puppy [382] | ||
2.6.20 | 4 February 2007 [383] | 2.6.20.21 [384] | October 2007 [384] | Named Homicidal Dwarf Hamster [386] [387] | ||
2.6.19 | 29 November 2006 [388] | 2.6.19.7 [389] | March 2007 [389] | Named Avast! A bilge rat! (TLAPD 2006) [393] | ||
2.6.18 | 20 September 2006 [394] | 2.6.18.8 [395] | February 2007 [395] 2.6.18: RHEL 5.x | |||
2.6.17 | 17 June 2006 [397] | 2.6.17.14 [398] | October 2006 [398] | 2.6.17-rc5 was named Lordi Rules [400] (Eurovision 2006 winners) [401] 2.6.17-rc6–2.6.17 was named Crazed Snow-Weasel [402] | ||
2.6.16 | 20 March 2006 [403] | 2.6.16.62 [404] | Adrian Bunk [405] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) [330] | July 2008 [406] [404] | 1st LTS release 2.6.16.28-rc2 was named Stable Penguin | |
2.6.15 | 2 January 2006 [408] | 2.6.15.7 [409] | Greg Kroah-Hartman | May 2006 [409] |
| Named Sliding Snow Leopard [411] |
2.6.14 | 27 October 2005 [412] | 2.6.14.7 [413] | January 2006 [413] | Named Affluent Albatross [415] | ||
2.6.13 | 28 August 2005 [416] | 2.6.13.5 [417] | December 2005 [417] | Named Woozy Numbat [418] [419] | ||
2.6.12 | 18 June 2005 [420] | 2.6.12.6 [421] [422] | August 2005 [421] | |||
2.6.11 | 2 March 2005 [423] | 2.6.11.12 [424] | June 2005 [424] | |||
2.6.10 | 24 December 2004 [425] |
| ||||
2.6.9 | 19 October 2004 [427] | |||||
2.6.8 | 14 August 2004 [428] | |||||
2.6.7 | 16 June 2004 [429] | |||||
2.6.6 | 10 May 2004 [430] | |||||
2.6.5 | 4 April 2004 [432] | |||||
2.6.4 | 11 March 2004 [434] | |||||
2.6.3 | 18 February 2004 [436] |
| ||||
2.6.2 | 4 February 2004 [438] | |||||
2.6.1 | 9 January 2004 [440] | |||||
2.6 | 17 December 2003 [442] | Linus Torvalds | December 2004 [443] |
| 2.6.2–2.6.4 was named Feisty Dunnart [447] 2.6.5–2.6.9 was named Zonked Quokka [448] 2.6.9: RHEL 4.x The 2.5 kernels were development kernels [449] | |
Legend: Old version |
Version | Original release date | Last release | Maintainer | EOL | Prominent features | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2.4 | 4 January 2001 [450] | 2.4.37.11 [451] | Willy Tarreau (formerly Marcelo Tosatti) | December 2011 [451] | Named Greased Turkey [456] Last stable release of the 2.4 kernel series. The 2.3 kernels were development kernels [449] | |
2.2 | 26 January 1999 [458] | 2.2.26 [459] | Marc-Christian Petersen (formerly Alan Cox) [460] | Made unofficially obsolete with the 2.2.27-rc2 [461] [462] | The 2.1 kernels were development kernels [449] | |
2.0 | 9 June 1996 [467] | 2.0.40 [468] | David Weinehall | officially made obsolete with the kernel 2.2.0 release [469] |
| Larry Ewing created the Tux mascot in 1996 |
1.3 | 12 June 1995 | 1.3.100 [471] | Linus Torvalds | EOL |
| Greased Weasel [475] |
1.2 | 7 March 1995 | 1.2.13 | Linux '95 [476] | |||
1.1 | 6 April 1994 | 1.1.95 | ||||
1.0 | 14 March 1994 | 1.0.9 |
| |||
0.99 | 13 December 1992 | 0.99.15j [480] | The Linux 0.99 tar.bz2 archive grew from 426 kB to 1009 kB on the way to 1.0. | |||
0.98 | 29 September 1992 | 0.98.6 [483] | ||||
0.97 | 1 August 1992 | 0.97.6 [485] | ||||
0.96 | 22 May 1992 | 0.96c.2 [489] | ||||
0.95 | 8 March 1992 | 0.95c+ [491] | Jump from 0.12 to 0.95 [494] | |||
0.12 | 15 January 1992 | |||||
0.11 | 8 December 1991 |
| First kernel where other people start making real contributions [496] | |||
0.10 | November 1991 | Jump from 0.03 to 0.10 First release where Minix isn't needed anymore [498] | ||||
0.03 | October 1991 [498] |
| ||||
0.02 | 5 October 1991 |
| First "usable" release; for wider distribution [499] | |||
0.01 | 17 September 1991 | |||||
Legend: Old version |
Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel. He also created the distributed version control system Git.
The Linux kernel mailing list (LKML) is the main electronic mailing list for Linux kernel development, where the majority of the announcements, discussions, debates, and flame wars over the kernel take place. Many other mailing lists exist to discuss the different subsystems and ports of the Linux kernel, but LKML is the principal communication channel among Linux kernel developers. It is a very high-volume list, usually receiving about 1,000 messages each day, most of which are kernel code patches.
The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) is a subsystem of the Linux kernel responsible for interfacing with GPUs of modern video cards. DRM exposes an API that user-space programs can use to send commands and data to the GPU and perform operations such as configuring the mode setting of the display. DRM was first developed as the kernel-space component of the X Server Direct Rendering Infrastructure, but since then it has been used by other graphic stack alternatives such as Wayland and standalone applications and libraries such as SDL2 and Kodi.
The Linux kernel provides multiple interfaces to user-space and kernel-mode code that are used for varying purposes and that have varying properties by design. There are two types of application programming interface (API) in the Linux kernel:
seccomp is a computer security facility in the Linux kernel. seccomp allows a process to make a one-way transition into a "secure" state where it cannot make any system calls except exit
, sigreturn
, read
and write
to already-open file descriptors. Should it attempt any other system calls, the kernel will either just log the event or terminate the process with SIGKILL or SIGSYS. In this sense, it does not virtualize the system's resources but isolates the process from them entirely.
Tivoization is the practice of designing hardware that incorporates software under the terms of a copyleft software license like the GNU General Public License, but uses hardware restrictions or digital rights management (DRM) to prevent users from running modified versions of the software on that hardware. Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) coined the term in reference to TiVo's use of GNU GPL licensed software on the TiVo brand digital video recorders (DVR), which actively block modified software by design. Stallman believes this practice denies users some of the freedom that the GNU GPL was designed to protect. The FSF refers to tivoized hardware as "proprietary tyrants".
Wireless network cards for computers require control software to make them function. This is a list of the status of some open-source drivers for 802.11 wireless network cards.
Greg Kroah-Hartman is a major Linux kernel developer. As of April 2013, he is the Linux kernel maintainer for the -stable branch, the staging subsystem, USB, driver core, debugfs, kref, kobject, and the sysfs kernel subsystems, Userspace I/O, and TTY layer. He also created linux-hotplug, the udev project, and the Linux Driver Project. He worked for Novell in the SUSE Labs division and, as of 1 February 2012, works at the Linux Foundation.
Linux began in 1991 as a personal project by Finnish student Linus Torvalds to create a new free operating system kernel. The resulting Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. Since the initial release of its source code in 1991, it has grown from a small number of C files under a license prohibiting commercial distribution to the 4.15 version in 2018 with more than 23.3 million lines of source code, not counting comments, under the GNU General Public License v2 with a syscall exception meaning anything that uses the kernel via system calls are not subject to the GNU GPL.
Tux is a penguin character and the official brand character of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux distributions depict Tux in various styles. The character is used in many other Linux programs and as a general symbol of Linux.
The Linux kernel is a free and open source, UNIX-like kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU operating system (OS) which was created to be a free replacement for Unix. Since the late 1990s, it has been included in many operating system distributions, many of which are called Linux. One such Linux kernel operating system is Android which is used in many mobile and embedded devices.
cgroups is a Linux kernel feature that limits, accounts for, and isolates the resource usage of a collection of processes.
SCHED_DEADLINE
is a CPU scheduler available in the Linux kernel since version 3.14, based on the earliest deadline first (EDF) and constant bandwidth server (CBS) algorithms, supporting resource reservations: each task scheduled under such policy is associated with a budget Q, and a period P, corresponding to a declaration to the kernel that Q time units are required by that task every P time units, on any processor. This makes SCHED_DEADLINE
particularly suitable for real-time applications, like multimedia or industrial control, where P corresponds to the minimum time elapsing between subsequent activations of the task, and Q corresponds to the worst-case execution time needed by each activation of the task.
zswap is a Linux kernel feature that provides a compressed write-back cache for swapped pages, as a form of virtual memory compression. Instead of moving memory pages to a swap device when they are to be swapped out, zswap performs their compression and then stores them into a memory pool dynamically allocated in the system RAM. Later writeback to the actual swap device is deferred or even completely avoided, resulting in a significantly reduced I/O for Linux systems that require swapping; the tradeoff is the need for additional CPU cycles to perform the compression.
Namespaces are a feature of the Linux kernel that partition kernel resources such that one set of processes sees one set of resources, while another set of processes sees a different set of resources. The feature works by having the same namespace for a set of resources and processes, but those namespaces refer to distinct resources. Resources may exist in multiple namespaces. Examples of such resources are process IDs, host-names, user IDs, file names, some names associated with network access, and Inter-process communication.
In the Linux kernel, kernfs is a set of functions that contain the functionality required for creating the pseudo file systems used internally by various kernel subsystems so that they may use virtual files. For example, sysfs provides a set of virtual files by exporting information about hardware devices and associated device drivers from the kernel's device model to user space.
RPMsg is a protocol enabling inter-processor communication inside multi-core processors.
Kernel page-table isolation is a Linux kernel feature that mitigates the Meltdown security vulnerability and improves kernel hardening against attempts to bypass kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR). It works by better isolating user space and kernel space memory. KPTI was merged into Linux kernel version 4.15, and backported to Linux kernels 4.14.11, 4.9.75, and 4.4.110. Windows and macOS released similar updates. KPTI does not address the related Spectre vulnerability.
Bcachefs is a copy-on-write (COW) file system for Linux-based operating systems. Its primary developer, Kent Overstreet, first announced it in 2015, and it was added to the Linux kernel beginning with 6.7. It is intended to compete with the modern features of ZFS or Btrfs, and the speed and performance of ext4 or XFS.
Shuah Khan is an American software engineer recognized for her contributions to the Linux kernel. In 2019, she became the first female Linux Foundation Fellow, joining notable figures such as Linus Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman as the third fellow at the time.
The 3.4.113 version of the Linux kernel has been finished in Oct 26, 2016 and it's currently marked as EOL (End of Life) version.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)The original 'containers' name was considered to be too generic – this code is an important part of a container solution, but it's far from the whole thing. So containers have now been renamed 'control groups' (or 'cgroups') and merged for 2.6.24.