What is Digg?Sponsored by Threadless
75 Comments
- PhonicUK, on 04/22/2009, -0/+28This is entirely to do with the Kernel. Usability and functionality is provided by a given Distribution.
- bartbrinkman, on 04/22/2009, -3/+31Atheros and Prism, finally. Might just be a huge step for desktop-based Linux.
- LucasHenderson, on 04/22/2009, -0/+16Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't there been Atheros support for quite some time? I mean, I've used a number of atheros based wifi adapters, all of which have worked right out of the box.
- edzilla, on 04/22/2009, -6/+20what the hell could an article about a kernel numbered 2.6.30 be about beside linux? A gallery of kitten pictures?
- Sammi84, on 04/22/2009, -0/+12Always nice with some real tech updates.
Miss the old days on Digg. - MattBD, on 04/22/2009, -2/+14@twiztidsinz
Your comment is unbelievably ignorant. The Linux kernel has supported Wi-Fi for many, many years. What this is talking about is drivers being included within the kernel for specific wireless devices. Linux supports many wireless devices out of the box. It's just that since many manufacturers do not provide Linux drivers the Linux kernel developers have to write the drivers in many cases, and this means it can take longer for a device to be supported in Linux than Windows. - wigren, on 04/22/2009, -0/+12The only difference I noticed is my WIFI indicator light now works. I didn't even know it was there.
- powatom, on 04/22/2009, -1/+13'Developers not creating Linux drivers is Linux' fault'.
What?
If you want hardware to work on Linux, buy hardware which works on Linux. It's really very simple. If you buy a chair which you can't fit through your front door - is it the fault of the people who built your house, or is it your own fault for not measuring the door and chair? - KWhat, on 04/22/2009, -0/+10Google Cache Mirror, little slow so use text only. Highlights include lots of Wi-Fi and Lan driver changes. Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) support is new. Few misc improvements and thats about it.
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:7fXkcNDyREcJ:w ... - powatom, on 04/22/2009, -0/+10@raicap - that is why we use distributions. If you want to roll your own kernel, then you will have to do that stuff. Distributions do most of the legwork (if not all of it) for us.
- Induane, on 04/22/2009, -0/+9Actually I have laptops with both Prism and Atheros chipsets in them and never had issues when I started using linux many years ago. I think the difference here is that these drivers are built to be included in the mainline kernel whereas the others might have relied on abstraction layers or firmware that couldn't be utilized in the kernel legally. They were still included in most distros with the exceptions being some of the purists which is fine and the reason that choice is good.
As for messing with 20 distro's packaging systems... no real need. If a driver is developed for the kernel then getting it into the kernel isn't that hard. They only run into trouble when they try to make proprietary ***** drivers and binary blobs that require being bolted on instead of integrated.
I bought my laptop (getting old now) three years ago. It was a decent HP dv5000 and I liked it. Installing ubuntu yielded no issues whatsoever with anything including the xpress200m chipset it included. I had direct 3d rendering, wifi, and even my remote worked for controlling volume and stuff. Later when I sold it I put XP on it and delved into a nightmare of driver issues that made me wonder why anyone used windows before my idiot brain realized that most people don't have to install it. You want a linux machine buy one that bundles linux. Same with windows, you dn't have to mess with the driver issues because its installed by the oem and not because one is better than the other. In truth Linux supports a far more vast array of hardware out of the box than windows, something that is undeniable. - notrealdan, on 04/22/2009, -0/+9and proud of it
- pak314, on 04/22/2009, -0/+8This reminds me of the time a month before Oracle started supporting Linux. There were all sorts of rumors on Slashdot about this and one person had a hard time believing and made the proclamation that he we would eat his shoes if the rumors were true. We were all looking for him a month later!
- funklor, on 04/22/2009, -0/+8Page seems to have died, so I can't see if they're included, but:
How about an hwmon driver for my Phenom I & II? Seriously. They've been out for ages, and there are only one or two unofficial patches floating around. Not even sure if they compile against recent kernels. - ethana2, on 04/22/2009, -0/+8Oracle contributed some code.. and now they own sun. I'm going to bet the next release of The Kernel is going to be VERY exciting.
- smotpoker, on 04/22/2009, -0/+8There has been some atheros support for at least a few years but it wasn't always included in the kernel and not all atheros cards were supported. Since then more chips have gotten support and added to the kernel. Plus, as wigren mentioned, there have been some modifications as well.
- TWiThead, on 04/22/2009, -1/+8Not everyone viewing Digg's front page possesses an intimate knowledge of this subject. Many have heard of Linux but have no familiarity with its kernel (let alone the numbering scheme). To such an individual, the headline isn't likely to be mistaken for something pertaining to a different topic, but it also isn't likely to convey the article's nature. Simply appending the word "Linux" would inform users that the article relates to Linux.
- hackmeister, on 04/22/2009, -0/+7MythTV users rejoice: kernel support for the Hauppauge PVR-1212 usb based HD capture box. Woot!
- stix213, on 04/23/2009, -0/+6Strictly speaking it is not needed. A hardware manufacturer could on their own supply source code or an executable that could compile a driver kernel module against your kernel version's source and add the driver to your kernel.
It is just way better in the long run for the end user to have it all built in so you don't have to bother with that. Plus that type of support from hardware manufacturers is still somewhat lacking still.
Wouldn't it be nice if every few months Microsoft would release an optional patch to add all newly available hardware drivers to your windows machine? So if you went out and bought a new piece of hardware it would just work without needing to install an additional driver? And you knew Microsoft would reduce the driver file size to its minimum possible size without any bloatware instead of getting the typical 300MB HP printer driver downloads from their support site just to print a damn word doc? Never going to happen though, Microsoft couldn't be as cool as kernel.org - TWiThead, on 04/22/2009, -12/+17When submitting such articles, it's helpful to add "Linux" to the headline. Someone viewing the "Linux/Unix" category probably doesn't need the clarification, but this just appeared on the front page (where it lacks context). I saw "Kernel Log: What's coming in 2.6.30" and immediately thought of Linux, but not everyone would.
- Culyt, on 04/22/2009, -0/+5Linux has better overall hardware support than any other OS. The only problem is that new hardware ships with Windows driver cd's (or as part of a complete system) and Wifi which is a problem although shouldn't be for too much longer since there is a lot of work being done with these drivers and also the Broadcom ones.
You will run into the same problem with hardware under Windows too, if you don't have the driver CD and are installing the OS rather than it shipping installed. In some ways its harder because Windows has a much longer release cycle. It hard to download drivers when your Ethernet isn't working because thats what you need the drivers for which is something that I run into quite often when Installing Windows.
Most companies are happy to get their drivers into Linux, it might not have much traction in the desktop area but it has a lot on the server side. The kernel devs also offer free driver development, all they need is documentation and even agree to sign NDAs providing the code is GPL'd at the end. - WiseGuy1020, on 04/22/2009, -0/+5sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
find the old kernel entries and delete them. Depending on your distro replace gedit w/kate or mousepad or nano or whatever text editor you want to use. - Sammi84, on 04/22/2009, -0/+5People who read the Linux/Unix section do care.
If you don't like it then either ignore it or block the section. Simple. - Nephersir7, on 04/22/2009, -0/+5I am actually quite happy with the improvements because it enables bluetooth coexistence for the ath9k chipset my wifi card uses. (previously enabled in 2.6.28 if i remember correctly).
Kernel improvements are more important than they may seem. - zerodaysoon, on 04/22/2009, -0/+4I have a toshiba p205d-7545 and i had to manually installed the drivers...it was a pain but after each new kernel release i got better at it....I'm hoping with the new kernel release I dont have to do this anymore
edit: does anyone know how to delete the reference to the old kernel versions when GRUB loads? thanks - Peterix, on 04/22/2009, -2/+6twiztidsinz: you failed to add anything relevant to the discussion. Just being obnoxious on the internet along with the fritzek guy. Could you at least stay civil?
digg comments are mostly disgusting :/ - mrmagos, on 04/22/2009, -0/+3Hmm, I didn't realize that there was an Intel wifi card that didn't work out of the box. I used the 2200 AG card in my old laptop, with early kernels in the 2.6 series. My new system has a 5300 AGN card, and it works flawlessly under .28 and .29.
Take a look at their project page :http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/
Support for the 4965 has been in the kernel since .24 (Jan 2008), with external drivers since .18 (Sep 2006). So, it should have worked "out-of-the-box" since January of last year. - Peterix, on 04/23/2009, -0/+3Because the linux kernel is changing too much between versions. It's just not practical to maintain a driver outside the kernel. Once it's in there, devs can update it when the underlying architecture changes.
- Peterix, on 04/22/2009, -0/+3>>to copy M$ and Apple in hopes of garnering attention
blah blah blah blah. blah.
>>otherwise get a life.
Wellcome to the land of the blocked! Seeing this kind of drivel under every interesting story is getting old very quickly. - Sammi84, on 04/22/2009, -0/+3People who read the Linux/Unix section do care.
If you don't like it then either ignore it or block the section. Simple. - Tenoq, on 04/23/2009, -0/+2Maybe this is a good argument to add some sort of 'category' indication to the front page. I would think adding a small 'Unix/Linux' bubble next to the appropriate articles would be a valid usability improvement for Digg. Obviously the same can apply for all article types...
Anyone else like the idea? - powatom, on 04/22/2009, -0/+2@dontreplytome
What are you talking about? What I said is perfectly valid: you can't blame the Linux devs when the decision to release drivers for a particular piece of hardware is down to the hardware manufacturers. It's nothing to do with the kernel devs - so you can only really expect hardware to work if the support is known to be there. - stix213, on 04/23/2009, -0/+2You cared enough to click the comments for the article yourself.
- Culyt, on 04/22/2009, -1/+3Sure because we need to dumb the Internet down some more. Of course they also might not know what Linux is.
- shredswithpiks, on 04/22/2009, -0/+2Well, considering the only reason driver level stuff works well for the average windows/mac user is because Microsoft and Apple operating systems get into the hands of average users by being bundled with the hardware - it comes set up and working so the average user doesn't even have to know what drivers are. If you find hardware that comes bundled with a linux OS it will all work out of the box and that average user again wouldn't even have to know what drivers are.
Windows and OS X have their own drivers problems... try building a computer from scratch using either OS and see if you do or do not have to mess around with some drivers along the way. Hardware and software are both always changing and those changes are rarely coordinated with each other. There are always going to be weird driver issues no matter what OS you use. - aladrin, on 04/22/2009, -2/+4Stop trying to defend others. If they cared, they'd post what you did. They didn't, and they do not care. They see the word 'kernel', realize it has nothing to do with them, and move on.
If you read every single article on Digg whether it interests you or not, you have other issues as well. - ukblacknight, on 04/22/2009, -4/+6*****, so it's not about KFC?!
- doctechnical, on 04/22/2009, -1/+3It could be what you find in the toilet after you eat corn.
But seriously, Linux isn't the only OS with a kernel. The article could have been about AmigaDOS based on the headline. - zerodaysoon, on 04/23/2009, -0/+1thanks dood!!!
- stix213, on 04/23/2009, -0/+1So Jiffy Pop isn't up to v2.6.30?
- TWiThead, on 04/22/2009, -0/+1I'm not saying that this is a big deal or complaining that the submitter did something wrong. I'm just pointing out that simply adding "Linux" to the headline would be helpful to readers seeing it on the front page.
Yes, viewing the category or the comment page's URL would reveal that the article pertains to Linux or Unix, but reading "Linux Kernel Log: What's coming in 2.6.30" would be easier. - antdude, on 04/23/2009, -0/+1Thanks for the tips. :)
- FastZ, on 04/23/2009, -0/+1Linux has worked fine on my desktop for years. I don't see why all the haters have to say it's not "desktop-ready"....
- TWiThead, on 04/22/2009, -0/+1"Nothing to do with them"? Are you suggesting that no one unfamiliar with the Linux kernel and its numbering scheme could possibly care about significant feature additions/enhancements? Do you not want to promote the fact that Linux is improving (and encourage new users to try it)? I do, and omitting the word "Linux" from both the headline and the description doesn't accomplish this.
- pinchduck, on 04/22/2009, -1/+2Run whatever you want, Rusty. I'll stick with Linux.
- fritzek, on 04/22/2009, -1/+2twiztidsinz: Support for new hardware is added much faster to Linux, than any other OS(except for the case, when manufacturer refuses to give specifications, or provide driver himself). I.E. Do you know, which OS had first driver for USB 3.0? You can guess.. http://www.osnews.com/story/20647/First_Steps_Towa ...
P.S. What do you mean by "mine is legitimate"? Linux isn't? - Forma, on 04/22/2009, -0/+1Amen to that.
You sign up for tech news and what do you get?
http://feeds.digg.com/~r/digg/container/technology ... - Peterix, on 04/22/2009, -2/+2http://digg.com/linux_unix/Kernel_Log_What_s_comin ...
Besided, it states linux_unix right there in the URL. What else do you expect? - ferrisnox, on 04/22/2009, -1/+1Seeing every story about how this is the year of the Linux and its going to save the world is OLD. Linux has some real problems they need to address to be taken seriously, I don't think giving honest criticism ever gets old. I would love to see Linux take off, but as I noted they need to get basic driver level stuff working much better for the average user, and spend less time on gimmicks.
- ferrisnox, on 04/22/2009, -1/+1Doesn't work. especially in 802.11N mode. Saying it works and actually working are two different things.
-
Show 51 - 75 of 75 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is