Linux Fans: Meet Version 2.4.0

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January 04, 2001 (5:50 PM EST)

The long-awaited next version of the Linux kernel was released Thursday by Linus Torvalds, Linux creator and keeper of the open-source operating system kernel.

In a short e-mail sent at 4:01 PST, Torvalds said version 2.4.0 of the system is "out there."

The new version is considered by many to be a major milestone for the Linux movement.

Major Linux vendors such as Red Hat Software (stock: RHAT), Caldera Systems Inc. (stock: CALD), and S.u.S.E. have anxiously awaited its new features and capabilities.

The highly anticipated 2.4 kernel offers increased symmetrical multiprocessing scalability, a must-have feature for corporate applications running on Linux servers.

Earlier kernels were generally thought to only scale well up to four processors. The new version may support up to 16.

Version 2.4 will also sport greater support for USB, a key for uses in desktop PCs and network appliances.

In his short and humorous message to the kernel mailing list, Torvalds encouraged developed to have fun with the new version and suggested he wanted a few days off before people started reporting bugs.

"Anxiously awaited for the last too many months, 2.4.0 brings to the table many improvements, none of which come to mind to the exhausted release manager right now," he wrote.

Torvalds, who is also an engineer at Transmeta Corp. (stock: TMTA), had said the enhanced kernel would be out in December. But even then it would have been about a year later than originally scheduled.