Date based

Date based

Well, first of all kernel releases are time based. So normal version numbers make less sense than date based ones. That just valid and logical.

Well, if Linus goes ahead with 3.0 then it's a date based system, as Linus says himself. Namely 3.x is the x'th release in the 3rd decade since Linux was born. Perhaps Linus just doesn't want to base his versioning on the birth date of some religious figure.. :-/

Also, perhaps Linus shouldn't base his versioning on such provincial time units as various stuff related to how fast the earth rotates around its own axis and the suns. I vote for megaseconds (Ms) since the epoch!

As to the question whether some group will find the kernel version numbering scheme easy to understand, or acceptable, or whatever: Those for whom the kernel version matters can certainly figure out whatever scheme is used (as long as higher number == newer), for the rest it doesn't really matter (does your PHB know the version number of the Windows kernel in his laptop? No, I didn't think so either)