InternetOops! I Fixed the Linux Kernel

Make no mistake: Efforts like "oops" show the Linux community's focus on improving code quality, fixing bugs and even enlisting non-technical users to help the cause.

When Linux crashes, users don't get a Blue Screen like they do on Windows. Instead, Linux generates an "oops" -- a crash signature that can help developers to figure out what went wrong. The feature may have a silly name, but it's increasingly serious business. Keeping track of the "oopses" is the duty of the Kerneloops.org project, and according to supporters, its efforts have improved kernel quality and fixed a large number of bugs -- a thrust that's critical for Linux as it angles for even greater adoption in the enterprise and elsewhere. RELATED ARTICLES Who Writes Linux? There Are a Lot of Unknowns Would-Be Linux Contributors May Get a Leg Up Linux 2.6.26 Opens Up to Debugging Sweeping Changes in New Linux Kernel Linux Kernel Hits 2.6.24 For more stories on this topic: "Linux calls it 'oops,' but it's basically equivalent to a Windows 'Blue Screen,'" Arjan van de Ven, of Intel's Open Source Technology Center, told InternetNews.com "It's kind of the same thing in terms of what causes it and what it does, except we don't make it blue -- we just print the message." Van de Ven runs the Kerneloops.org project site himself, although the collection mechanisms of oops detection and reporting are mostly automated. Kerneloops chiefly collects oops records from a client installation that is available to Fedora, OpenSUSE and Debian users. Such features are growing every more useful as the market for Linux grows... [ Read more on www.internetnews.com ]

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