It shows that the CVE fixes were consistent during the last 2.5 years and 14 releases.
Right, yes. But if the transitions from 4.x to 5.0 and 5.x to 6.0 were also shown, we’d be able to see that the bump itself isn’t significant, and that this happens after every major version release.
The magnitude of the bump is what’s important, and we can’t see that without comparing to pre- and post- AI tooling.
Why 5.0 and 6.0, those are ancient. This goes back to 6.9 from May 2024, where Ai usage in the Kernel wasn’t a thing until the recent few releases.
Linux versioning does not work like that. There is no major release, the are all equivalent. It’s not a joke, Linus Torvalds just don’t want high numbers, so at the latest .20 (dot-twenty) release they create a new major one. But functionally it doesn’t matter. Therefore the release version is meaningless for our discussion. I’m really serious about this, this is not in any way trolling or being toxic. All we need for this discussion are already present in the graph.
In contrast to semantic versioning, the major version carries no intrinsic meaning for the kernel, as Linux promises stable interfaces and behavior even when the major version changes. However, since version 3.x, minor versions have been capped around 20 to avoid the false perception that changes between large minor versions (e.g. from 5.30 to 5.31) would be less voluminous or impactful than changes between smaller minor versions (e.g. from 6.1 to 6.2).
Right, yes. But if the transitions from 4.x to 5.0 and 5.x to 6.0 were also shown, we’d be able to see that the bump itself isn’t significant, and that this happens after every major version release.
The magnitude of the bump is what’s important, and we can’t see that without comparing to pre- and post- AI tooling.
That’s the whole point.
There is no need to go older. We have 14 releases in between 6.9 and 7.2.
I don’t understand what you’re saying… Those aren’t major releases, those are dot releases, and they cross a major release.
Linux versioning does not work like that. There is no major release, the are all equivalent. It’s not a joke, Linus Torvalds just don’t want high numbers, so at the latest .20 (dot-twenty) release they create a new major one. But functionally it doesn’t matter. Therefore the release version is meaningless for our discussion. I’m really serious about this, this is not in any way trolling or being toxic. All we need for this discussion are already present in the graph.
Have a look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel_version_history
Yes, I’m seeing that now, thank you. Makes sense.