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Today's Topics:
1. Linux 6.12 is the new long term supported kernel (Stephen Loosley)
2. The Naivete of Cloud-Using Organisations (Roger Clarke)
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:59:59 +0000
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Linux 6.12 is the new long term supported kernel
Message-ID:
<sy5p282mb44091e8bf26412eb233faf9ec2...@sy5p282mb4409.ausp282.prod.outlook.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
Linux 6.12 is the new long term supported kernel
Mid-November release will be maintained for 'several years'
By Liam Proven Wed 11 Dec 2024 // 09:02 UTC
https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/11/linux_612_lts/
Last month's new version of the Linux kernel, 6.12, has been confirmed as the
newest LTS release? which also marks the end of the line for kernel 4.19.
Kernel version 6.12 was released on November 17, and at the end of last week,
without any fanfare, it also became the latest long term supported version ? as
confirmed by Phoronix.
Linux kernel 6.12 is an interesting release. Perhaps the biggest change is that
This version finally sees the completion of the process of incorporating the
patches to make the kernel capable of real-time operation. Labelled PREEMPT_RT,
these started development 20 years ago, and for a couple of years they've been
used in the special Ubuntu Real-time edition.
The previous step in taking them mainstream was merging the locking code, which
went in to kernel 5.15 in 2021.) This latest merge makes it possible to enable
both hard and soft real-time behaviour in the kernel.
Building on functionality that we described going into kernel 6.11, if kernel
6.12 panics, it can display the crash message as a QR code, which will make
debugging easier. It also introduces a new class of process scheduler, the
Extensible Scheduler, which allowes eBPF programs to define CPU scheduling; LWN
did a deep dive on how this works last year.
Along with this are all the usual bug-fixes and assorted improvements to
hardware support, filesystems, power management, and so forth, as seen in every
new kernel release.
One in, two out
As we reported last year, the overworked kernel maintainers have been compelled
to reduce the number and lifetime of LTS kernel versions. As such, the lifetime
for 6.12 is currently listed as being until December 2026. The counterpoint to
a new member of the list of LTS kernels, though, is that others fall off the
end.
At the same time as 6.12 became the latest LTS kernel, Greg Kroah-Hartman
announced the last bugfix release of kernel 4.19: version 4.19.325. He notes
that, even after 325 versions, there are a lot of outstanding known bugs in
this version:
As a "fun" proof that this one is finished (and that any company saying they
care about it really should have their statements validated with facts), I
looked at the "unfixed" CVEs from this kernel release. Currently it is a list
983 CVEs long, too long to list here.
As such, this is the final release, meaning that this is now an unsupported
kernel:
It's the last 4.19.y release, please move off to a newer kernel version. This
one is finished, it is end-of-life as of right now.
The end of official support for kernel 4.19 coincides with the end of
third-party extended support for kernel 4.14. Back in March, we reported on an
unexpected extension of life support for that release, but it too is due to
fall off its perch at the end of this year.
This marks the end of the line for all versions of kernel 4.x. It's been around
for nearly a decade: kernel 4.0, codenamed Hurr durr I'ma sheep [sic], was
released on 12 April 2015. (Those were manifestly less serious times in
Linuxvania.)
* Long-term support for Linux kernels is about to get a lot shorter
* Linux kernel 4.14 gets a life extension, thanks to OpenELA
* Ubuntu LTS kernels will get one decade of fixes ? still
* Long-term supported distros' kernel policies are all wrong
Of course, some specific versions in various downstream vendors' products will
be supported for longer. Each distro vendor with fixed release cycles picks its
own kernel versions for each product release, which means that individual
vendors keep supporting their own specific kernels long after the upstream
versions wither on the vine. Long-term support versions of Ubuntu get a decade
of kernel fixes. Red Hat does similar, for even older kernels.
There is room for a great deal of improvement here. The Linux industry is a
mature, international multi-billion dollar business now. We feel it's time for
stable distro vendors to work out ways to synchronize their long-term release
cycles with the kernel team's long-term release cycles. Some distro vendors are
on board, but not the big players. It is already past time this happened. ?
* More about
* Linux
* More like these
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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2024 07:52:13 +1100
From: Roger Clarke <[email protected]>
To: link <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] The Naivete of Cloud-Using Organisations
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
I find it pretty remarkable that a notion like 'hybrid cloud' could be
used to make a marketing splash in late 2024:
https://www.itnews.com.au/feature/hybrid-cloud-not-a-trend-but-the-new-norm-for-business-resilience-613841
> 90% of enterprises [are] projected to adopt multi-cloud or hybrid
cloud models by 2024,
> hybrid infrastructures are essential for maintaining operational
continuity in a rapidly evolving digital landscape
> hybrid cloud provides organisations with a flexible, integrated
infrastructure that combines on-premises systems, private clouds, and
public clouds
OTOH, I was disappointed to find that the necessity of being able to
switch rapidly between different cloud services was only muddily
outlined in the papers I published when cloud computing was emerging.
In 2010, I only mentioned:
https://www.rogerclarke.com/II/CCSA.html#S
> If cloud computing matures into a competitive market, brokers are
likely to emerge, to intercede between vast numbers of clients, on the
one hand, and multiple service-providers' cloud managers, on the other.
https://www.rogerclarke.com/II/CCBR.html#TRC
> lateral compatibility - to ensure the freedom to escape to another
provider.
In 2012, I referred to:
https://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/CCEF.html#Exh2
> Lateral Compatibility - to enable dual-sourcing and escape to an
alternative provider
...
> Organisations that choose to be dependent on remote services could be
expected to have fallback arrangements designed, trialled and at the
ready. These might take the form of alternative cloud suppliers. On the
other hand, it is not in the interests of cloud-providers to facilitate
churn away from themselves, and hence standards and protocols supporting
inter-operability have been slow to emerge.
And in 2013:
https://www.rogerclarke.com/II/DRC.html#GS
> Various applications of the redundancy principle are relevant.
However, replication of the data across multiple locations, and even
across multiple service-providers, while mitigating the risk of loss and
inaccessibility, increases the risk of unauthorised access.
Multi-sourcing remains very challenging at this stage, although some
progress has been made in inter-operability protocols and standards,
e.g. SNIA (2012).
--
Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected]
T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Visiting Professorial Fellow UNSW Law & Justice
Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
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