The 3.8 Kernel Is An Amazing Gift To Linux Users

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The 3.8 Kernel Is An Amazing Gift To Linux Users

While we are just a few days into the Linux 3.8 kernel merge window and there's still a number of pull requests that have yet to appear for this next kernel development cycle with new features, there's already a ton of exciting work. If you missed the horde of Phoronix articles in the past few days covering the prominent features, here's a recap showing why this Linux kernel being developed over the holidays is a great gift for its users...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTI1MzQ

[halo9en]

AND, you lose power savings on Intel GPUs. You forgot about this... feature.

[Veerappan]

Any word on whether the Nouveau reclocking support changes would get in?

[/home/Me]

These are some really good improvements! I can't wait!

[ворот93]

Amazing gift, you say?

- Work towards true CPU hot-plug support.

Does anyone use it actually?

- Improved ACPI power management in the never-ending battle of improving the Linux power efficiency and performance-per-Watt.

Not visible to naked eye.

- A wide variety of XFS file-system changes.

Does anyone use it actually?

- Continued work on 64-bit ARMv8 / AArch64 support.

Not for desktop.

- Tons of staging driver changes.

Not for most users.

- Support has been dropped for the old i386 CPUs to reduce the complexity of the Linux kernel.

Don't care.

- DMA-BUF support in V4L2 so that Video 4 Linux 2 drivers may share buffers with their DRM graphics drivers in a zero-copy manner.

...and?

- In certain workloads, the Linux kernel now goes through a lot less system memory.

This one may be really beneficial. But again depends on use case.

- Linux support for the Microsoft Windows 8 multi-touch protocol.

Don't care.

- Audio driver improvements, including new sound card drivers.

If they cut on lag - awesome. If just new cards - don't care.

- Performance improvements for cryptography on Linux.

Don't care.

- Support for the yet-to-be-released IBM POWER8 CPUs.

Oh lols. Is anyone actually going to use them?

- While the DRM pull request hasn't yet been submitted, there are Radeon performance improvements, various other Radeon changes, Exynos driver improvements, Intel/Nouveau changes, and much more.

This one is interesting although most users stick to the official drivers.

Is Linux 3.8 a net positive? Absolutely. Is it an amazing gift for the majority of Linux users? No.

[disi]

- Work towards true CPU hot-plug support.

I wonder if it will be possible to turn off whole CPU, if not needed to save power (which don't do that yet anyway themselves). Will that notify and work with C-State and C-Groups etc.?

- Improved ACPI power management in the never-ending battle of improving the Linux power efficiency and performance-per-Watt.

Cool for any user

- A wide variety of XFS file-system changes.

I don't use it at the moment, but it is definately in many NAS drives and servers.

- Continued work on 64-bit ARMv8 / AArch64 support.

Don't have the hardware :/

- Tons of staging driver changes.

Don't have the hardware :/

- Support has been dropped for the old i386 CPUs to reduce the complexity of the Linux kernel.

There were quiet a lot of changes in the menu driven config anyway, what I really like is the option in 'Intel Support' and 'AMD Support' to kick out most of the options not needed. Will this also remove this, 'blabla for older systems'?

- DMA-BUF support in V4L2 so that Video 4 Linux 2 drivers may share buffers with their DRM graphics drivers in a zero-copy manner.

yay

- In certain workloads, the Linux kernel now goes through a lot less system memory.

I just make sure I have enough RAM

- Linux support for the Microsoft Windows 8 multi-touch protocol.

no care!

- Audio driver improvements, including new sound card drivers.

I want to see e.g. USB Logitech audio speaker supported properly. This is unfortunately not a kernel driver problem but alsa

- Performance improvements for cryptography on Linux.

Good again

- Support for the yet-to-be-released IBM POWER8 CPUs.

Don't have the hardware :/

- While the DRM pull request hasn't yet been submitted, there are Radeon performance improvements, various other Radeon changes, Exynos driver improvements, Intel/Nouveau changes, and much more.

yay!

[Hamish Wilson]

I do not get the attitude displayed here - this is a significant amount of notable changes for one Kernel release, especially in such a short period of time. In that respect it certainly is an amazing gift.

[deanjo]

Does anyone use it actually?

Tonnes of systems do.