Kernel 2.6 Kicks Off

operating system source code Linux

At a macro level, Witham says the 2.6 version vastly improves application performance and throughput. In addition, here's a quick list of several other improvements to the 2.6 kernel, courtesy of OSDL:

• On the server:
• Better scalability and overall speed increase enabled by new processor scheduler and simultaneous multithreading and support for non-uniform memory access
• Can now run applications that access large blocks of memory
• Network file system is faster, more scalable and secure
• On the desktop:
• Preemptible feature enables kernel to be interrupted midtask
• New I/O scheduler to improve application's performance
• Wireless support
• Laptop power savings