Linux Kernel Version 3.x

[Philip Downer]

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
> <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