The current test version, 2.6.0-test10, should be the last, and 2.6.0 itself will emerge by the end of the year "unless the wheels fall off in a serious manner," 2.6 overseer Andrew Morton said in an interview Tuesday.
[...]
Morton believes the 2.6.0 kernel will be much better tested when it arrives than 2.4.0. "I think 2.6.0-test10 is about the same level of maturity that 2.4.17" was, he said. "We're a lot farther down the track than we were with 2.4."
[...]
Version 2.6 includes a multitude of changes:
• It's geared to work better on large multiprocessor systems, particularly those using the non-uniform memory access (NUMA) designs in which there are a range of delays possible when processors read or write data from memory.
• It's got better support for "embedded" computing devices such as cell phones, network routers or video recorders.
• It responds more quickly to human actions such as mouse clicks or keyboard commands.
• Its "block device" drivers, the software modules for communicating with devices such as hard drives and CD drives, have been overhauled.
