Linux distros set to take 2.6 on board

Now that the 2.6 kernel has been finalised, Linux distributors will build it into their operating systems and bring it to market over the next few
months.

SuSE Linux, swallowed up by Novell late last year, claimed that it expected to be several months ahead of its archrival, Red Hat, in releasing a Linux
distribution based on the 2.6 kernel. That product will be SuSE Linux Enterprise 9, expected this spring. A few months later, in the fall of 2004, Red
Hat will release Version 4 of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux software, which will be Red Hat’s first 2.6-based release.

But in the interim, many of Linux 2.6’s features are already available in the enterprise Linux distributions from these two vendors, where they have
been added as patches to the 2.4 kernel.