Farewell To The Linux 2.6 Kernel?

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Kernel on 17 October 2008 at 03:58 PM EDT. 25 Comments
LINUX KERNEL
Version 2.6 of the Linux kernel was released in late 2003 and since then the developers have stuck with the 2.6.x.y version numbering. It's been five years with the stable Linux 2.6 kernel, but a proposal has been made on the Linux kernel mailing list to change this scheme. No, a Linux 2.8 kernel isn't secretly in the works, but Novell's Greg Kroah-Hartman has proposed the numbering version be time-based.

Instead of having say the Linux 2.6.28 kernel it could be called 2009.0.0 (or 2009.1.0). The next kernel update would then be called 2009.1.0 (or 2009.2.0). In response to Greg's mailing list message, others have proposed changing the version to Linux 3.x, an XX scheme (such as Linux 28), and other methods.

At this time it's all talk, but if a change ends up getting approved, we'll be sure to let you know.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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