From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: phil@pjd.me.uk (Philip Downer) Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:02:30 +0000 Subject: Linux Kernel Version 3.x In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4EE5DF46.6060401@pjd.me.uk> To: kernelnewbies@lists.kernelnewbies.org List-Id: kernelnewbies.lists.kernelnewbies.org On 12/12/11 04:14, Kaushal Shriyan wrote: > Please help me understand the difference between Linux Kernel 3.x vs > Linux Kernel 2.6. And also i have not understood > http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTUwMg > about 2.6.40 > meaning 3.0 version. And also help me understand about linux-next and > mainline vs stable branch on http://www.kernel.org/ Ok, so version 3.x was just a rename to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Linux. However the rename apparently broke some userspace tools and so I believe some distros rename 3.x to 2.6.4x as this does not break their userspace tools. Also as I understand it: Linux-next is new upcoming unstable stuff mainline is the latest release or release-candidate stable is a version which is picked to be maintained for a long period of time (6 months I think) and receives some backports and security updates HTH Phil