After roughly 15 years in version 2.x, Linus Torvalds has finally announced that the Linux kernel to version 3.0 will have the next release. And what changes with this version change? According to Torvalds himself: "Nothing."
According to Torvalds, who made the announcement in the list of kernel developers, the decision to so drastically change the kernel version has much more to do with the celebration of 20 years of Linux than with new functions or rewriting code.
Torvalds also said that part of the change comes from your inability to count beyond 40, why anyone with more than 30 years will understand perfectly (the current version is version 2.6.39, and as we see in the timeline above, hardly the kernel passes this numbering).
Obviously, many can expect major changes from this new kernel numbers, but the truth is that version 3.0 of Linux will be a launch without any drastic change. Do not expect something as seen in GNOME KDE 3 or 4, is not this what Linus wants at the moment.
Any bug fixes will be there, some updates on the drivers too, but that's it. Do not expect changes in the API, do not expect new features, do not expect a long list of changes in the source code that may end up breaking other programs that make use of the kernel. At the time, Torvalds is just really want to leave for a new version of Linux. And avoid the hundreds of problems that occur when a project is launching a new version ".0", with bugs, compatibility issues, and the like.
For now, the Linux kernel version 3.0 is in RC1, and source code can be downloaded from kernel.org. We remind everyone that although versions RC (release candidate) are very close to the final version, you should avoid using these in production environments. And if you have no idea how to begin to compile a source code, it might be better to wait for your favorite distro release the package is already compiled.
