Has Linux kernel development slowed down lately?
 

I've just been to kernel.org to download a pristine kernel and I find that we're still at 2.6.30 as stable. While not really worried about it, I haven't read anywhere about a 2.7 development branch for the future.

Are we likely to see a freeze on the Linux kernel and only incremental upgrades in the future?

All the news items I can find on google related to this go back to 2004. Nearly five years on, is there any likelihood of 2.7?

If you want to follow kernel development you should check out Linus' blog. He writes about the kernel periodically and the books he is reading, his kids' glasses etc.

http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/

There are no plans for 2.7 or 2.8. http://www.google.com/search?client=...utf-8&oe=utf-8

The numbering really doesn't matter, as long as it continues to evolve and the development continues. I haven't seen any slowdown at all.

The kernel has reached a point where a general refactoring wouldn't make much sense. It has such a solid foundation that functionality can be changed or added without much trouble. Lots of goodies are coming into scene lately, in many areas. KMS and btrfs comes to my mind right now, but there are *lots* more of examples.

Something like this.

I remember reading an interview of Linus maybe a year ago (on slashdot) and he talked about how the numbering system was slowing down because Linux was becoming more and more mature. They change major version numbers based on certain criteria when things in the kernel are being rearranged. This doesn't mean development is slowing, what is means is that the kernel doesn't need rearanged quite as often anymore, making it a more stable base to develop for (drivers dont get outdated quite as often etc).

The last few kernel versions actually had a few exciting features added to them. I don't remember all of them but within maybe the past year they've added a stable webcam interface, a lot of support for wifi, some kind of integrated memory tester, various boot time improvements (including "boot tracer" which I've used myself), USB 3.0 (linux being the first OS to support it), and the GEM Memory Manager (for GPUS, the intel video drivers benefited greatly from this as should other video cards).

I also remember maybe a year ago I bought a brand new AUSUS motherboard with a new ethernet interface and within about a week it was fully integrated into the git release. ASUS was nice enough to release linux driver source code so it's not like I had any problem building it myself, but it's nice that things like that get added quickly...