IBM north region Linux software sales manager Richard Voaden says the new Linux kernel promises to solve the problem of vertical scalability, which has long inhibited a much wider uptake of the operating system.
"At the moment we have a vertical scalability limit, which means you can put Linux on a four or eight way box and know that it will perform extremely well, but beyond that we know the returns will be fairly minimal."
Voaden says the new Linux kernel is likely to change all of that and hopefully increase interest in Linux. "The new kernel will probably find its way into Linux distributions by the first quarter of next year and will remove the vertical scalability limit," he says.
Voaden says that until now, working on ways of improving the scalability of the Linux kernel has been one of the areas of focus for IBM`s developers in the Linux Technology Centre in Austin, Texas. This team works on ways of improving the Linux kernel, using IBM`s experience in Unix systems.
The Open Source Development Lab released a test version of the 2.6 version of the kernel this week for public testing and evaluation.
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