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By Stephen Shankland, 8 December 2003 09:55

NEWS The programmer in charge of the current version 2.4 of the Linux kernel plans to quickly curtail the addition of new features in order to encourage a swift move to the upcoming 2.6 kernel, a decision that has irked some programmers.

Marcelo Tosatti, the deputy that Linux leader Linus Torvalds appointed to maintain the 2.4 Linux kernel, said in a posting to the Linux Kernel Mailing List this week that the follow-on 2.6 kernel is mature enough that it should be the foundation of new projects.

Tosatti will accept some significant changes and some support for selected new hardware in version 2.4.24, now under development. But versions 2.4.25 and beyond will be released only to fix security problems or other critical issues, he said.

"2.6 is becoming more stable each day, and we will hopefully see a 2.6.0 release during this month or January," Tosatti said in a posting to the Linux Kernel Mailing List on Monday.

The 2.6 kernel is in final testing, and its maintainer, Andrew Morton, said in November that he expects to release it in December. The new kernel includes several features, such as the ability to work better on large multiprocessor servers, that are expected to make Linux more appealing to corporate customers.

Tosatti's decision didn't sit well with some who are reluctant to move so soon to untested software.

One angry programmer said in a posting: "I am terrified of the following scenario, which is extremely probable to happen soon. 2.4 is being moved into 'pure maintenance' mode and people are being encouraged to move to 2.6. While people slowly start using 2.6, Linus starts 2.7 and all kernel developers move on to the really cool and fashionable things. 2.6 bug reports receive little attention, as it's much cooler to work on new features than fix bugs."

Stephen Shankland writes for News.com