Linux kernel set to get live patching in release 3.20

Come and get this Git pull, Linus!






A collaboration between SUSE and Red Hat is going to bring relief to Linux users the world over: they'll be able to patch their systems without reboots.

The live patching infrastructure looks set to become available in version 3.20 of the Linux kernel.

The two organisations introduced their distribution-specific live patching solutions a month apart in 2013 – SUSE's kGraft hit in February, and Red Hat's Kpatch arrived in March.

As SUSE developer Jiri Kosina explains on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, an early shot at live patching called kSplice was acquired and turned into a proprietary service.

He says the SUSE and Red Hat approaches were different: “kPatch is issuing stop_machine()”, inspecting processes and deciding whether the system is safe to patch; “kGraft provides a per-thread consistency during one single pass of a process through the kernel and performs a lazy contiguous migration of threads from 'unpatched' universe to the 'patched' one at safe checkpoints.”

After a discussion at the Linux Plumbers' Conference in Dusseldorf in 2014, the different parties worked out the basis of the new approach.


Source:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/11/linux_to_get_live_patching_in_320/

Special Distro : SUSE Linux Enterprise 12. The Advanced Foundation for Enterprise Computing

Propel your enterprise to the next level of productivity and competitiveness with the advanced foundation for enterprise computing, SUSE Linux Enterprise 12.

SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 offers increased data center uptime, greater operational efficiency and accelerated innovation, so that you can be more responsive to business needs and support revenue growth. SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 delivers enterprise-quality resiliency, security and manageability, in physical, virtual and cloud environments, with reduced risk of vendor lock-in and technology obsolescence.

60 DAYS FREE EVALUATION

Source:

https://www.suse.com/promo/sle12.html

IBM and Top Linux Distros Team Up to Drag x86 Workloads Onto Power

IBM, a long-time supporter of Linux, has been working with major distributions of the popular open source operating system, to make it easier for users to port their applications written for x86 servers onto IBM Power Systems.

IBM got out of the x86 server business just last year, after itsold its System x unit to China’s Lenovo for $2.3 billion. The company has since been placing a lot of focus on growing its business around the Power processor architecture and servers built on it.

The way IBM and the big Linux distros – Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) Red Hat, and SUSE – are tackling the portability problem has to do with the way server platforms treat data stored in memory. Most Linux software is written for the x86 architecture, which uses the “little endian” approach to storing bytes in memory. The alternative is “big endian,” which has traditionally been used by mainframes and IBM’s Power architecture. (Detailed explanation of the difference here)




Source:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/googles-project-zero-reveals-three-apple-os-x-zero-day-vulnerabilities/

Linux network configuration turns positively wicked

Wicked replaces a lot of old Linux network configuration commands and utilities in SLES 12, making the OS more cloud friendly.
 As Linux distributions rapidly become more cloud compatible, network configurations gain complexity and flexibility. SUSE introduced the wicked network management tool to handle cloud and cloud-ready networking.



 Source: 
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/tip/Linux-network-configuration-turns-positively-wicked

2015: If wishes were penguins, everyone would fly

Jack Wallen offers up his Linux wishes for 2015 and what he believes will help the open-source platform reach more users and businesses. 

It's the end of yet another year. I'm not going to go on record to say that 2015 will finally, finally, finally be the year of Linux! It may, but it may not. What I will go on the record for is to say what my personal Linux and open-source wishes for Linux are in the coming year. They aren't many, and they aren't tilting at any given windmill ... they just are.

I've already made my "predictions" for Linux in my post "2015 will be the year Linux takes over the enterprise (and other predictions)". This time, however, I want to take a look at what might be necessary for some of those predictions to actually come true.

Ubuntu Phone

Personally, I've grown quite disillusioned by Canonical and their drive to release a Linux-based phone. It's so long over due that it's become almost irrelevant. So, here's what I wish for the Ubuntu Phone:

Either the Ubuntu Phone is released in 2015, or the project is scrapped.

Source:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/2015-if-wishes-were-penguins-everyone-would-fly/