this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
178 points (97.3% liked)

Linux

48372 readers
2159 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Going through my usual scanning of all the "-next" Git subsystem branches of new code set to be introduced for the next Linux kernel merge window, a very notable addition was just queued up... Linux 6.10 is set to merge the NTSYNC driver for emulating the Microsoft Windows NT synchronization primitives within the kernel for allowing better performance with Valve's Steam Play (Proton) and Wine of Windows games and other apps on Linux.

top 25 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 55 points 7 months ago (2 children)

2024, the most memorable year of Linux gaming so far :-)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

why? i feel things are stabilizing and we are seeing incremental improvement instead of sweeping change now.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh no, all the projects are maturing and stabilizing? How boring, I don’t know how Linux gaming will survive

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

oh i didnt mean to imply this is bad, just that it isnt memorable.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Yeah, I'm team @[email protected] on this one. It's important but it's not revolutionary

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Nah mate, 2022 was when it started getting really good, GPL got rid of shader compilation stuttering (as well as dxvk-async related glitches), compatibility improved massively with improvements to both dxvk and vkd3d, and ray tracing finally started working

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In addition to being useful for gamers, these are probably about to be the least likely to change APIs in the kernel.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

something something win32 is the most stable api

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I was wondering if this can be used outside of Windows context.

Edit: I'm asking specifically for Linux context.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Why not? Would you rather that we have a Windows-exclusive subsystem in our kernel?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago
  1. Kernel devs then would want to make it stable API. I don't want Windows API being stable part of kernel.

  2. It mostly implements racy stuff like pulsing event.

  3. There is already known subsystem that does not have stable API because it is used by only one project - DRI.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Backwards compatibility is important

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How does that have to do with the sync primitive?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Since it's a new feature, would it not cause incompatibility for any kernel versions before it was added?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Going through my usual scanning of all the "-next" Git subsystem branches of new code set to be introduced for the next Linux kernel merge window, a very notable addition was just queued up... Linux 6.10 is set to merge the NTSYNC driver for emulating the Microsoft Windows NT synchronization primitives within the kernel for allowing better performance with Valve's Steam Play (Proton) and Wine of Windows games and other apps on Linux.

The past several months has seen much work on the NTSYNC kernel driver for allowing better Wine (Windows) gaming/app performance on Linux.

"ntsync uses a misc device as the simplest and least intrusive uAPI interface.

It was very exciting to see this morning that Greg Kroah-Hartman has queued the NTSYNC patches into char/misc's char-misc-next branch.

With the patches now residing there, they will be submitted for the Linux 6.10 merge window opening up in May and then debuting as stable this summer -- barring any last minute issues or objections raised by Linus Torvalds.

Very exciting year for Linux gamers with NTSYNC going mainline, ongoing work around HDR and other display improvements, and all of the Wayland advancements being made, among the usual Linux hardware support advancements and other common kernel milestones being seen in 2024.


The original article contains 345 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 39%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] MichaelTen 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So will FL Studio and Photoshop work on Linux then?

Limitless Peace

[–] dyc3 7 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Fl studio already works fine for me through wine

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I remember running FL Studio using WINE 15 years ago and it worked fine.

[–] MichaelTen 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Really.... interesting...

What about loopcloud and all vsts?

[–] dyc3 2 points 7 months ago

Vsts are a bit of a gamble. Serum's UI is bit buggy, and Massive works flawlessly. I don't really have many vsts to test though. Idk what loopcloud is.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Is this an alternative to FSYNC and ESYNC?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

What about futex2?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

I want it that way!