Well, we just haven't had anything big enough to merit an increase in the
minor number lately. I nominate the removal of the BKL as one such feature,
based on the sheer work required and how many modules you'll need to touch to
do so. In fact, it would be the natural conclusion to a 2.x series that
highlighted SMP as its primary new feature.
But it's hard now to predict future milestones, or when an overall paradigm
shift might happen. In those cases you'll want to give Linux a bright new
announcement to the world, instead of it being "just another standard year of
kernel development".
Remember, you used to have versions called 1.3.100 before -- and they seemed
perfectly normal back then. I personally like how we're still on 2.y.z numbers
compared to all of the other OSes (Solaris 11, HP-UX 11)...it makes Linux still
feel young, showing how much better it can get ;-)
So I vote for releasing by "features" still, and keep the current numbering
scheme. Who knows when the next big idea will pop up that's worthy of 3.0.0.
-Byron
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