Enterprises asked to ‘hammer’ on new 2.6 test kernel

Enterprises anxious to have a go at the Linux 2.6 kernel got their wish Monday when Linux creator Linus Torvalds, 2.6 kernel maintainer Andrew Morton
and the Open Source Development Lab released a new test kernel.

“Now is when we want big companies and software vendors to step in and hammer on the kernel so we can get their ideas into the final production
release of 2.6 Linux,” Torvalds said in an OSDL statement. Torvalds and Morton joined the Open Source Development Lab in July. “This is their last big
chance.”

The release of the test kernel, called test9, is the final step before a production version of the 2.6 kernel is released. The new kernel is expected
to accelerate enterprise adoption of Linux in mission-critical duties like database transactions, for example.