Frequently Asked Question

What is the Linux kernel release model? What do version numbers mean?

Linux uses time-based releases, not feature-based. Linus Torvalds tags a new mainline release roughly every 9–10 weeks (about six per year). The version is MAJOR.MINOR, e.g. 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, and the major number bumps when the minor gets uncomfortably large; there's no semantic meaning to a bump from 5.19 to 6.0.

Each release has a two-week merge window (open for new features), then 7–8 weeks of -rc release candidates fixing regressions, then the final tag. After that the stable team picks the release up and maintains it as 6.8.1, 6.8.2, … for months. A small number of releases become Long Term Support (LTS) and are maintained for 2–6 years, distributions like Debian and RHEL ship from LTS kernels.