Xen and Git, key components of Kernel 2.6.11.12

NEW DELHI: According to an e-mail posted by Chris Wright, member of the 'stable team' responsible for the kernel, latest version of Linux Kernel 2.6, dubbed 2.6.11.12 has been released. Said an online report.

Version 2.6.11.12 release comes with a virtual machine monitor, Xen. Xen lends virtualization capabilities to the kernel and comes as a standard configuration option, and doesn't need to be added in manually. Another important breakthrough is that this release is built on Git, a new release management tool on which Linus Torvalds has been working for some time.

Earlier versions of the kernel used Bitkeeper to keep track of code and related patches. Torvalds began work on Git when BitMover supplier of BitKeeper decided to charge for its usage.

Torvalds started work on Git amongst fears that his involvement with Git will slow down the release cycle as he would get distracted from his core job. These fears, however, have been proved wrong with timely release of the kernel.

The new kernel release is expected to ship with all major Linux distributions by second half of this year and can be downloaded for free from the Linux kernel archive site, kernel.org.