Maximum Linux Kernel Performance (KernelTrap) [LWN.net]

KernelTrap takes a look at installing Andrew Morton's -mm kernel. "Andrew Morton began releasing his -mm kernel patches a little over a year ago, in the summer of 2002. The -mm tree began as a 90k patch against the 2.5.17 development kernel, merging in the remote kernel debugger, kgdb. By the release of 2.5.18, the -mm patchset had grown to nearly 238k, merging in a wide assortment of fixes and new functionality. As of this writing, the current -mm patchset is 2.6.0-test5-mm3, weighing in at nearly 5 megabytes. Andrew's -mm tree has evolved from a testing ground for numerous new technologies, to a comprehensive patchset that is usually more stable than the mainline 2.6.0-test kernel itself. This bodes well for the future of the 2.6 kernel, as Andrew Morton will soon be the official 2.6 kernel maintainer."

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Maximum Linux Kernel Performance (KernelTrap)

Posted Sep 23, 2003 0:38 UTC (Tue) by stumbles (guest, #8796) [Link] (1 responses)

That's some mighty high praise for Andrew Morton.

Maximum Linux Kernel Performance (KernelTrap)

Posted Sep 23, 2003 12:17 UTC (Tue) by brugolsky (guest, #28) [Link]

All of it well-deserved. He has midwifed the 2.6 kernel through its entire gestation and done much dirty work and heavy-lifting along the way (like splitting, fixing, and merging the rmap VM patches, or fixing ext3 scalability). He is careful and methodical, taking pains to create regression tests and insert assertions into code to make sure that obscure problems don't reappear (as has occasionally happened in the past). Perhaps most importantly, he has good people skills -- a lot of code got merged because Andrew provided lots of useful feedback and assistance to folks who showed up on linux-kernel bearing gifts in need of some fixing and tweaking.