Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.
This week: A new Linux kernel drops and layoffs at Amazon Web Services point to trouble.
1. Linus launches latest Linux
First up this week: Linux 6.3 is out, with a long list of DevOps-worthy features. “It’s been a calm release … right on schedule,” said Linus Torvalds.
Analysis: The shiny
And that punctual calmness bodes well. With new features improving power efficiency, performance and security, 6.3 might be worth a look—despite not being an LTS release.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has the bottom line: some major new features
“Latest Linux kernel”
The latest Linux kernel is out with a slew of new features. And, for once, this release has been nice and easy. [But] calm doesn’t mean boring. … There are still some major new features in the Linux 6.3 kernel.
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The new kernel comes with user-mode Linux support for Rust … everyone’s favorite memory-safe language. … Other features in the Linux 6.3 kernel include support and enablement for upcoming and yet-to-be-released Intel and AMD CPUs. … Older AMD processors will be a bit more secure and a bit faster. … Many file operations will be a bit more secure and faster. …
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If you want to work with 6.3 today, you can, but you’ll need to compile the Linux kernel yourself. … Some distributions, usually the rolling-release Linux distros, will pop the kernel out soon. … Those initial releases are the easiest way to play with the latest Linux kernel versions.
Marius Nestor’s got a little list: Linux Kernel 6.3 Officially Released
Highlights of Linux kernel 6.3 include:
a new DRM accelerated driver for Intel VPU (Versatile Processing Unit) that supports VPU IP 2.7 integrated into 14th Generation Intel “Meteor Lake” client CPUs,
Rust code support for x86_64 user-mode Linux,
AMD’s “automatic IBRS” feature, …
The “ZBB” bit-manipulation extension for RISC-V kernels, …
Kernel address-space layout randomization and relocation for the LoongArch architecture, …
Full support for BPF trampolines on RISC-V and IBM Z (s390x) systems, …
Hyper-V extended hypercalls for KVM (x86), …
ARM SME (Scalable Matrix Extension) 2 instructions, …
System-call filtering on the m68k architecture,
a new command-line parameter … disabling memory accounting,
a new red-black tree data structure for BPF programs, …
AES-SHA2-based encryption for the NFS file system, …
ID-mapped mounts for the TMPFS file system, …
Per-CPU file-data decompression support for the EROFS file system.
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Networking improvements: …
PLCA (Physical Layer Collision Avoidance) Reconciliation Sublayer,
BIG TCP support for IPv4, …
New queuing disciplines, …
New socket option to make it easier for multiple hosts to make outgoing connections through a NAT gateway, and
Support for multi-path TCP mixed flows for … IPv4 and IPv6.
Simon Sharwood suggests a couple more: Linux 6.3 debuts
Among the additions are better support for multi-actuator hard disk drives. Conventional hard disks have one actuator driving a single set of read/write heads. Multi-actuator disks add a second set of heads, which speeds things up nicely. Hyperscale cloud operators are the first big buyers of multi-actuator disks, but they’re slowly going mainstream. Now Linux is better able to handle them.
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It’s a rare kernel that debuts without support for something incongruous. And this time around users of Logitech’s G923 racing wheel controller will be pleased that Linux now supports their passion.
Michael Larabel reminds us of a couple of important bug fixes: Linux 6.3 Released
Landing in this past week was an important Btrfs regression fix [and] fixing an Intel Gigabit Ethernet adapter that had been stuck to ~60% of its maximum speed for the past three years. … Now onward to the Linux 6.4 cycle!
I’m sorry? Three years? Arnonyrnous Covvard e><pIains: [You’re fired—Ed.]
It seems there is a hardware bug in that chip which causes issues if a particular feature isn’t disabled. The “regression” was a patch that was supposed to turn off that broken feature, except it didn’t really turn it off. That sounds more like a failed workaround.
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Also, what are Intel engineers doing if it takes this long to notice that their hardware is running at 60%?
But not for u/AdolescenceOfP1:
Hard pass. New kernel == everything breaks in drivers … and I have to curse a lot. … The only kernel rev I dare trust to keep the USB 3.0 ports from being flaky is 5.13.0-39-generic (EOL).
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The never-ending fanboys … believe that Linux “always works.” … Being a Unix guy since the early 80’s, I’m only at home with a “real” shell. … If people think that device drivers aren’t an endless problem on Linux, they have their head in the sand.
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[It] is so far from the magic “always works” that MS and Apple pull off, it’s sad. Out of sheer anguish I will punt back to one of the big two if I ever get up the energy to redo everything. Unix is for hard-core engineers to maintain, period, end of paragraph, end of chapter, end of story.
O RLY? WaffleMonster explains:
Where Microsoft is light years ahead of Linux is design of kernel interfaces for drivers. With Linux everything in the kernel is based on source code rather than interfaces and the code is constantly changing.
It is effectively impossible to create a product and distribute a Linux driver with it. Either drivers get mainlined into kernel or you are stuck with an infinite number of kernel modules for an endless variety of very specific kernel versions which becomes effectively impossible to manage.
And u/RAMChYLD is anything but chilled:
I’ll pass [if] it breaks ZFS again. … Until BTRFS’s RAID5/6 implementation is production ready and supports SSD caches without needing me to figure out how to attach BCacheFS on top, and provides a utility for me to check that everything is working correctly, I’ll stick to ZFS.
What about the point-and-drool Ubuntu brigade? Here’s Jakobson:
[The] https://github.com/pimlie/ubuntu-mainline-kernel.sh.git script makes it very easy to install Ubuntu kernels and also remove old ones.
2. Amazon Web Services Lays Off More Staff
More AWS employees are being let go by the Bezos machine. Does this mean there’s worse to come for tech careers—DevOps in particular?
Analysis: Outlook cloudy
AWS being the most profitable part of Amazon, this week’s news is a concern. But at least it’s good news for owners of the stock.
Taylor Soper: Latest round of Amazon layoffs begins today, impacting AWS
The layoffs are part of the 9,000-person corporate workforce reduction announced by the company in March. The cuts mostly affect AWS, human resources … Amazon Advertising, and Twitch. … The additional 9,000 layoffs bring the total to 27,000 job cuts, about 8% of Amazon’s corporate workforce.
Annie Palmer: Amazon starts layoffs in HR and cloud units
By announcing layoffs in ads and AWS … Amazon CEO Andy Jassy … has shown that two of Amazon’s biggest and most profitable businesses aren’t immune to the cost-cutting. Both AWS and ads have experienced slowing growth in recent months as companies trim their spending amid a challenging economic environment.
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A portion of the cuts on Wednesday is expected to land in AWS’ professional services arm, which helps customers troubleshoot issues with their cloud infrastructure. … Shares of Amazon surged more than 3% in afternoon trading.
If AWS sneezes, does the rest of the tech sector catch a cold? jasoneckert thinks not:
Big news headlines seem to be positioned in a way to scare people away from tech jobs right now, but the hard reality is that every organization relies on tech people, not just those few big tech companies in Silicon Valley that over-hired during the pandemic.
There’s a broader context here. erp_consultant thinks laterally:
Bad news for Amazon. … AWS is the only profitable division in the whole company. They lose money on books and merchandise and Prime Video. If cloud adoption is slowing down that could really spell trouble for Amazon.
The Moral of the Story:
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run
—Babe Ruth
You have been reading The Long View by Richi Jennings. You can contact him at @RiCHi or [email protected].
Image: Devon Hawkins (via Unsplash; leveled and cropped)
