Linus Torvalds prepares to move the Linux kernel to modern C | ZDNet
www.zdnet.comThe Linux kernel's foundation is the ancient C89 standard of C. Now, Torvalds has decided to upgrade to 2011's more modern C11 standard.
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Indian street shitter
How is the direction to be taken for kernel development decided? Is Linus something like the CEO of the Linux Foundation?
Linus used to be a benevolent dictator for life (BDFL), but in the past years he took some time to reflect on some shitty behavior of his, and delegate more power to the other maintainers. He’s still the grand maintainer of things, but certainly treats outside opinions/patches more gently than before.
Just for clarification, updating to modern C is not at all a controversial change. It was delayed for decades due to dependency on older GCC versions, but now that this technical concern has been solved, it’s a very consensual change that will enable much better maintainability of the kernel.