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back to article Linux 4.14 arrives and Linus says it should have fewer 0-days

Linus Torvalds has given the world version 4.14 of the Linux Kernel. Torvalds announced the new release with his usual lack of fanfare, but with a couple of interesting nuggets of news. He opened by saying “it is probably worth pointing out how the 0day robot has been getting even better (it was very useful before, but …

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  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "an automated vulnerability-checker that scours kernel code for issues."

    Sounds like a clever idea.

    You'd hope all OS developers use something like that.

    I wonder if they do?

    11 2 Reply
    1. david 12 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: "an automated vulnerability-checker that scours kernel code for issues."

      >I wonder if they do?<

      It's effectively a third-party test system which does whole-of-system testing with multiple inputs.

      So no, comparatively few developers get third-party testing, and comparatively few projects have to integrate multiple sources, and a big chunk of those projects that have to integerate multiple sources are not permitted to allow third-party testing.

      1 1 Reply
    2. hplasm
      Reply Icon
      Windows

      Re: "an automated vulnerability-checker that scours kernel code for issues."

      "I wonder if they do?"

      Well, usually it's called The Gullible Userbase...

      Icon.

      15 5 Reply
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      Re: "an automated vulnerability-checker that scours kernel code for issues."

      Microsoft uses an advanced, dynamic and rapid-learning neural net for this: its customers.

      26 3 Reply
      1. newspuppy
        Reply Icon

        Re: "an automated vulnerability-checker that scours kernel code for issues."

        Fixed your 'minor' error:

        Microsoft uses an advanced, dynamic and slow rapid-learning neural net for this: its customers.

        7 1 Reply
  3. Wilhelm Lindt
    Alert

    The "0day robot" has nothing to do with 0days

    Strange as it may seem, none if its tests have anything to do with security.

    https://01.org/lkp/documentation/0-day-test-service

    2 4 Reply
    1. GoE
      Reply Icon

      Re: The "0day robot" has nothing to do with 0days

      So it's a form of automated debugger. I've never seen one actually implemented on a large scale before, they're normally pretty useless beyond providing targets on already filed bug reports for QA testers. It's interesting to see them taking the idea further.

      3 1 Reply
    2. jake Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: The "0day robot" has nothing to do with 0days

      Because, as we all know, bugs never ever lead to security issues.

      5 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Motorola's forthcoming Droid 4 phone"

    Presumably not the Motorola Droid 4 which was released in February 2012 with Android 2.3, later upgraded to Android 4.1.2?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droid_4

    https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_droid_4_xt894-4418.php

    1 1 Reply
    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      "Presumably not the Motorola Droid 4 which was released in February 2012 "

      Correct.

      This is not the 'Droid you are looking for.

      It's a Monday morning.

      9 1 Reply
    2. a1exh
      Reply Icon

      Re: "Motorola's forthcoming Droid 4 phone"

      It *IS* actually the 2012 Motorola Droid 4. That phone was one of the first to have a PWM stepper motor for the vibrator

      2 0 Reply
  5. Martin an gof Silver badge

    "it really would be lovely to have a smaller and calmer release for 4.15"

    Best of luck with that then, as I gather there are some major updates already being pushed for AMD graphics systems. Stuff which I've been waiting for since I bought a '480 card a year or so ago and realised that I no longer had audio through the HDMI output.

    Running OpenSuse Tubmbleweed, specifically so that I can get 4.15 as soon as possible :-)

    M.

    4 1 Reply
  6. Tom 7

    Gym setting!

    "One of the “headline” features is support for larger memory limits on x86_64 hardware. The release increases the hard limits to 128PiB of virtual address space and 4PiB of physical address space, up from 256TiB of virtual address space and 64TiB of physical address space."

    Wonder if that will fit in your pocket?

    3 1 Reply
    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      "The release..limits to 128PiB of virtual address space and 4PiB of physical address space"

      Hard to believe the original Unix was implemented on machines with 64KB of physical memory.

      Almost impossible to imagine today.

      13 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "The release..limits to 128PiB of virtual address space and 4PiB of physical address space"

        Tre terminal icon takes uses more space than than now.

        5 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "The release..limits to 128PiB of virtual address space and 4PiB of physical address space"

        Hard to believe the original Unix was implemented on machines with 64KB of physical memory.

        Almost impossible to imagine today

        Except that all Intel processors today have a similar-sized coprocessor running MINIX, for the management back-door.

        8 1 Reply
        1. jake Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: "The release..limits to 128PiB of virtual address space and 4PiB of physical address space"

          Minix 3.X current's minimum memory requirement is 32 Megs of RAM.

          Minix 3.2.1 required 64 Megs.

          1 0 Reply
  7. m0rt

    "should make Linux a far better platform for GPU-intensive applications like running Crysis"

    FTFY.

    6 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      There4's hope

      ...like really.

      Love to move my gaming machine to Linux

      Myth

      1 2 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Hopefully...

      Actually it might apply to things like Vulcan?

      1 0 Reply
      1. m0rt
        Reply Icon

        Re: Hopefully...

        Explanation for those that missed the El Reg Crysis meme....

        https://forums.theregister.co.uk/post/search/?q=crysis

        2 0 Reply
        1. Hans 1
          Reply Icon
          Happy

          Re: Hopefully...

          https://forums.theregister.co.uk/post/search/?q=crysis

          Better, with the actual reasoning

          https://forums.theregister.co.uk/post/search/?q=%22crysis+scale%22&sort=score

          1 0 Reply
          1. jake Silver badge
            Reply Icon

            Re: Hopefully...

            Or even better, we just drop the not-funny-even-back-then meme.

            The Crysis thing is almost as old and tired as Paris ... it needs to be put out of it's own misery.

            4 4 Reply

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