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Itanium, Intel's 64-bit x86 processor, has its strengths, but we favor the Opteron's excellent native support for 32-bit applications. Itanium uses software emulation - the IA-32 execution layer - to run 32-bit programs.)

Earlier in February 2004 , Intel made a move to take on AMD head-on when it announced plans to release 64-bit extensions for its x86 processor family (Xeon and Pentium) by the end of the year. Xeon's Nocona version will get the first crack at the extensions, which Intel commonly refers to as "CT," or Clackamas Technology, beginning in the second quarter. The 64-bit Pentium extensions for "Prescott" P4s are expected to debut sometime midyear.

Reason 2: NUMA

Non-Uniform Memory Access - what this does is remove a major bottleneck in multi-processor systems, by creating more efficient memory usage. SMP (symmetric multi-processing) does OK up to 8-12 CPUs. The 2.6 kernel supports up to 64 CPUs, so NUMA support is a big plus. You can imagine the traffic jams from a batch of CPUs all fighting for access on a shared memory bus. NUMA acts like an air traffic controller at an insanely busy airport, keeping things moving and preventing collisions.

Reason 3 : Web Serving, File Sharing, and Databases

Kernel. 2.6 is fast, measuring as much as five times faster than the 2.4 kernel, for both Web servers and application servers. It's also blazingly fast for both file servers (with Samba) and databases. Many tests and benchmarks have been done to prove this fact. 

Reason 4 : More Users Than You Have Ever Seen Before

The addressing space for unique users has gone to 32-bit, from 16-bit, so now you can support 4 billion unique users, instead of a measly 65,000.

Reason 5 : Hyper-Threading or Fake CPUs

The Pentium 4 and Xeon CPUs do hyper-threading. Hyper-threading emulates multiple CPUs. The 2.6 kernel fully supports it, and unlike Windows 2000, it knows the difference between fake and real processors. With Windows 2000 you need additional CPU licenses for non-existent processors which is totally absurd. At any rate, 2.6 takes full advantage of the P4 architecture's hyperthreading capabilities.

Reason 6: Support for More RAM and Terabytes

Another nice boost for 32-bit systems is support for 64 GB of RAM, up from 4 gigabytes. Device support has increased tremendously (the /dev directory). In the 2.4 kernel, devices were limited to 255 major numbers, and 255 minor numbers; in effect, roughly 255 total devices. For example, /dev/hda1 is a single device, but it uses up both a major and a minor number. The new kernel supports 4095 major numbers, and over one million subdevices. PIDs (process IDs) have been boosted from 32,000 to 1 billion. Filesystems, even on 32-bit processors, have a theoretical upper limit of 16 terabytes, up from 4 terabytes. Device support has increased tremendously (the /dev directory). In the 2.4 kernel, devices were limited to 255 major numbers, and 255 minor numbers; in effect, roughly 255 total devices. For example, /dev/hda1 is a single device, but it uses up both a major and a minor number. The new kernel supports 4095 major numbers, and over one million subdevices.

Reason 7 : Improved Multimedia Capabilities

Sound and video are traditional Points of Pain in Linux. Traditionally, on all platforms, not just Linux, sound and video drivers introduce instability and other bad behaviors. 2.6 has fully integrated and improved the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture). It works harmoniously with multiple processors, and promises to be "thread safe," which means it won't trample all over other processes. It supports USB audio, and all kind of audio-nerd things, like full-duplex playback and recording, and multiple sound cards on a single system. For video-nerds, 2.6 incorporates DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) support, which means you can build your own Tivo or ReplayTV-type device.

Reason 8 : Other Goodies - More Reasons to leave Windows Behind

• User-Mode Linux, for running multiple Linux virtual machines.
• User-Mode Linux is great for testing buggy kernels and apps safely, testing all manner of network configurations on a single box, virtual hosting- it's a Linux lab in a box.
• IPSec i.e. for virtual private networking
• Support for mounting Novell shares
• ACLs (access control lists) Power management is much better. It had nowhere to go but up.

Device support has increased tremendously (the /dev directory). In the 2.4 kernel, devices were limited to 255 major numbers, and 255 minor numbers; in effect, roughly 255 total devices. For example, /dev/hda1 is a single device, but it uses up both a major and a minor number. The new kernel supports 4095 major numbers, and over one million subdevices.