Linux 3.0 RC1 Approved By Linus Torvalds, Adds Support for Kinect and More

Linux creator Linus Torvalds has approved a release candidate for the next version of the Linux kernel: Linux 3.0. According to ConveivablyTech, Linux 3.0 adds support for the Microsoft Kinect, optimizations for newer Intel and AMD platforms, cleancache, updated graphics drivers and more. An announcement from Torvalds also mentions ARM consolidation.

You can find the snapshot here.

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Torvalds first announced Linux August 26, 1991 and Linux 3.0 marks the beginning of the third decade of Linux. But Torvalds is downplaying the importance of the 3.0 release:

So what are the big changes?

NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Sure, we have the usual two thirds driver changes, and a lot of random fixes, but the point is that 3.0 is *just* about renumbering, we are very much *not* doing a KDE-4 or a Gnome-3 here. No breakage, no special scary new features, nothing at all like that. We’ve been doing time-based releases for many years now, this is in no way about features. If you want an excuse for the renumbering, you really should look at the time-based one (“20 years”) instead.

Tzury Bar Yochay wrote on Hacker News: ” Despite all criticism and cynicism all over the Linux communities about the numbering and all that stuff, for me, every release of the Kernel (as well as any other major / dominant open source platform / project) is a reason for celebration. It simply means, openness and freedom won the software/internet game.”

Here’s to hoping for another two decades of Linux.

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