That is a valid observation. Clearly, the users' knowledge should affect versioning. Now, not many people are considering switching from Linux 2.0 to 2.6.39, but your example was of course stretched to make a point.
On the other hand, big steps in version numbering at arbitrary points every now and then do not help either, unless there is somehow a guarantee that two versions with the same major number do not differ in any way that would deserve such an advertisment.
Posted May 31, 2011 10:12 UTC (Tue) by jwakely (subscriber, #60262)
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> Now, not many people are considering switching from Linux 2.0 to 2.6.39, but your example was of course stretched to make a point.
How many people actually think "hmm, do I want to upgrade my kernel from X to Y?" rather than just taking whatever their distro offers, and maybe upgrading their distro release? Hint: it's not a significant number.
N.B. LWN subscribers are probably not very representative, so "I do" and "me too" replies are unnecessary