10. Linux 2.4 Kernel
Linux will remain a key technology to watch next year, and the action should begin in the first quarter following the release of Version 2.4 of the Linux kernel, which should usher in significant advances. Linux creator Linus Torvalds has said the 2.4 kernel is likely to become available this month, so the first 2.4-based Linux distributions should ship in the first quarter of next year.
Linux has enjoyed a highly successful run since the current 2.2 kernel shipped in January 1999. Vendors of enterprise-critical server applicationsââ,¬"high-end databases, application servers, Web storefronts, firewalls and suchââ,¬"have embraced Linux en masse. Most large server manufacturers now offer and support Linux on their hardware. Likewise, vendors of network appliances have made generous use of the low-cost, highly customisable and highly reliable operating system.
Like the sellers, buyers in corporate IT have migrated to Linux-based servers of many types, including Web, Domain Name System, file and print, Internet access, and e-mail. Linux is particularly popular for departmental use, where loads are relatively light and management is handled remotely.
The Linux 2.4 kernel development process has focused on improving performance on larger machines and building in support for new hardware options such as Universal Serial Bus and architectures such as Intel's 64-bit Itanium and IBM's S/390.
Another important goal has been to improve SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) performance. A new process-scheduling algorithm to speed response time for network server applications such as Web servers is in the works, as are an SMP-improved disk cache design and a more SMP-capable networking layer. Developers have targeted Web server performance with a kernel-level Web server called khttpd. Another new Linux kernel-level Web server, Red Hat's Tux, posted spectacular results this year in Standard Performance Evaluation's SPECweb99 Web server benchmark.
A journaling file system won't make it into the initial release of Linux 2.4, but several efforts are close to fruition, and Linux will likely gain this crucial reliability feature sometime next year. Support for files larger than 2GB is in this kernelââ,¬"a welcome change, especially for systems with large log files and database servers.
Next year will be an important time for Linux in other ways, too. Inprise will ship its Kylix development tool, and Sun Microsystems is finally providing the same level of Java support on Linux that it delivered for other platforms.
On the desktop, Linux's market share remains very small, but integrated desktop and application suites such as K Desktop Environment and GNU Network Object Model Environ ment are improving rapidly.
