The new updates of the Linux kernel bring several serviceability improvements, chiefly around the kdump and SystemTap features. While the new SystemTap features enable IT professionals to debug a running system in real-time without affecting performance or recompiling, the kdump enhancements should improve the ability to quickly create crash dumps, ability that allows further offline analysis.

Andrew Morton, one of the kernel maintainers says:"Kdump is especially significant since it represents the first crash dump tool accepted into the mainline kernel. We expect it to be really valuable for the kernel development team, permitting us to gather detailed information regarding kernel bugs from our worldwide testing team." Also, the initiative manager at the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs), Ron Pettit says: "Because of the efforts of many individuals and companies from the Linux development community, users will gain important improvements to serviceability tools."

Some of those largest contributors to the latest improvements include Red Hat, Novell, IBM, Intel and HP. The new features are already available for most of the important Linux distributions around the world.

The Linux Kernel is the essential part of all Linux Distributions, responsible for resource allocation, low-level hardware interfaces, security, simple communications, and basic file system management.

Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, initially written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

You can download the stable of Linux kernel now from Softpedia.

You can download the development version of Linux kernel now from Softpedia.