Linux

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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.

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Linux security vulnerabilities fixed per kernel version (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Something good coming out of AI, it seems.

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[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours 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 7 points 18 hours ago (1 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 16 hours ago

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