this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2026
212 points (94.5% liked)

Linux

68709 readers
985 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 7 years ago
MODERATORS
nooter692@lemmy.ml
AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml
cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz
212
Linux security vulnerabilities fixed per kernel version (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 week ago by MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
91 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Something good coming out of AI, it seems.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Link@rentadrunk.org 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I thought Torvalds said major versions bumps were meaningless so 6.0 or 7.0 is the same as 6.12 to 6.13

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Minor versions go up according to a certain pattern based on how the change mgmt is handled for the kernel, but major releases are marked when the kernel team "feels it's the right time".

From lwn: https://lwn.net/Articles/871989/

To kernel developers, version numbers continued to have no meaning other than as a measure of where things were on the timeline, he said; users were encouraged to run the latest version. But if you tell customers they need to move from 3.20 to 4.0, they will consider it a multi-year effort that requires planning and paperwork; "so they will only do it when they have time, which is never". Going from 3.20 to 4.0 seems like a big jump, and 4.0 to 4.2 seems much smaller, even though the latter brings roughly double the number of changes.

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Maybe in the past, but that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.

Torvalds pointed out that the numbers he applies to new kernel releases are essentially meaningless.

“We haven't done releases based on features (or on "stable vs unstable") for a long, long time now. So that new major number does not mean that we have some big new exciting feature, or that we're somehow leaving old interfaces behind. It's the usual "solid progress" marker, nothing more.”

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Thanks for this, I think I now understand what others are sating about this.

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

I'm pretty sure if they were still using the old methodology, we'd still be on 2.6.x

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

The version numbers are not really meaningless, because anything higher than .20 is life-threatening to Torvalds. But technically and functionally, it doesn't matter.

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 10 points 1 week ago

Lol he said he doesn't want any version number higher than what he can count on his fingers and toes.

[–] Edie@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

What does he do when he gets to 19.19?

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

I hope he is still around at that time.

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

Switch to ..

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

I think he just doesn't want to wind up stuck again like with 2.6, which was the mainline kernel version from 2003 through 2011, finally ditching their classic semantic versioning and bumping to 3.0 from 2.6.39 in July 2011