Re: [tlug] Just curious... how much impact does a kernel update make?

[Dave M G <dave@example.com>]

Edward,

Thanks for responding.

> But in all seriousness, my impression is that its just a version not a
> marketing number so unless something major changes or they decide
> 2.6.257 doesn't work it may not change.

I find this all very fascinating.

When I first reflected on what you said about it not being a marketing 
number, I thought that meant that the Linux developers having no 
motivation to attach arbitrary numbers to make the kernel appear more 
modern as an enticement for people to adopt it. That would contrast it 
with someone like Adobe who rolls out a new version of their CS suite 
every 18 months, regardless of the scale or sensibility of their 
changes, because they want to get people feeling like they need the latest.

But then I considered other open source or free software projects, and 
they use version numbers all the time. For example, KDE has been working 
toward a version 4 (or 4.1? not sure... I'm not a KDE user) which was 
signified by certain milestones of development they wanted to achieve. 
Whereas Adobe wants to create a version number and then make it appear 
to have value, a free software developer decides what would have value 
and then assigns a version number to work toward.

Of course, different developers all have differing motivations for using 
version numbers. But if my above analysis is generally applicable, then 
it would seem to me that the Linux kernel developers pretty much think 
that the kernel does exactly what it needs to do, and only needs 
maintenance in the form of minor adjustments for new hardware and the like.

Does that sound like a reasonable take on it?



--
Dave M G
http://tlug.jp/mediawiki/index.php?title=User:Dave_M_G