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Red Hat Linux Y2K compliance

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Chuck

MIS
Dec 8, 1998
1
US
Hi, let me start by saying that I am not that familiar with Linux so please forgive me for not being up to speed. It is my understanding that this software is still in the experimental stages. My question is: Is this software Y2K compliant? If not is there BIOS, harware or any patch available to make it so? Where does this software retrieve its date and time value from?<br>
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Thank you in advance<br>
Chuck
 
Linux uses a (IIRC) 32-bit number to keep track of the date/time. It counts the number of seconds since January 1, 1970 GMT. As a result, very few, if any Y2K concerns exist.(I only know of two, which where fixed a long time ago) However, in the year 2038 this number will rollover - 64-bit computers delay this difficulty for the next couple billion years. The sun's demise will be a problem before our computers are:)
 
While the Linux kernel is Y2K compliant, remember the utilities are coded independently. Linux is a community effort and not all tools are of the same quality as others. As long as your hardware is Y2K, modern Linux distributions will not have problems. Also, major corporatations, like mine, are running all production 24x7 operations on Linux. It is not experimental. The Linux community very strongly differentiates between production and development versions. You should have no problems as long as you run an out-of-the-box modern production distribution.
 
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