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Linus Torvalds Delays Linux 3.7, Releases 3.7-rc8 Kernel Instead
hypnosec writes "The Linux 3.7 kernel has been delayed by one week as Linus Torvalds has released the Linux 3.7-rc8 instead. Because of some hiccups following the 'resurrection of a kswapd issue,' Torvalds wasn't comfortable releasing version 3.7 this week and instead went ahead with another release candidate. Torvalds revealed in his release announcement that because of this delay, the merge window for Linux 3.8 will close just around Christmas time."
I'm old school in that regard too:
Major number means a large jump in interface, coding, modules, and the build tree in general. An example would be a word processor getting a new format, a major new feature like spell checking, or a layout change that changes functionality completely.
Minor numbers meant some features were added, but not enough to increment a major number. Continuing the word processor example, adding multi-dictionary support to the spell checker, adding PDF/A as an export format, or significant but not earth-shattering new items.
Then you had your revision number. This was almost always for bugs or UI items. As with the word processor, it would be a process where a display glitch when scrolling gets fixed, or that during the save process, the old document gets renamed, the file gets saved, then the old document gets set aside or deleted, to ensure that there is always a working copy of the data.
On the IT side of the fence, one shys away from x.0.0 or even x.x.0 versions, and waits until the x.0.1 release happens. With version inflation like in Web browsers, this goes out the window, so it is harder to find a "stable" version to include in a corporate image.
Heck as far back as 12 years ago Microsoft had already released the 2000th version!!! Give it up zealots, the Linux will never catch up.