The Brazilian Stand Off

After listening to the pod cast dated sometime in 2006 (using a reference in one of the speakers on the podcast), I felt that the government was very correct in what they did.  These countries get baited into using only one type of operating system that ends up costing them millions to billions of dollars annually to use, when they just don't have that type of revenue and surplus.  I also see where this country is coming from because they may not feel that capitalism is the best motive for using Microsoft products.  America is one of only a few countries that believes in capitalism and the free market, making business with other national entities difficult because they wont always want to pay extravagant amounts of money to use something they may feel should be free.  If you look at the Linux software and how its evolved you'll notice that it has become a major competitor against the greats of Microsoft and Apple.  The GUI abilities are equal if not better in some instances of Linux as compared to the other systems, as well as the low overhead that it provides, giving many people a longer lifespan on their hardware requirements.  Overall, I can't say I blame Brazil for changing over from Microsoft to Linux, because in the end, its all about money.

mod 6 Blog - Kernel Numbering vs Version Numbering

Alright, so in doing some research, I found that Wikipedia had the most information readily available to me in concern of the numbering scheme for the Linux Kernels. 

There have been 3 types of systems implemented in how the kernel's were numbered.  the most recent having started after release version 2.6.  After discussion between many major parties in the making of linux, they decided to use a "a.b.c.d" scheme that would imply that A meant the kernal version, B meant massive revision number (or actual version number), C meant minor revisions, and D meant the immediate revision (usually "bug and security" releases) that can't wait for a major revision.

Previously they used an "A.B.C" method that was somewhat similar to the method mentioned previously, just didn't have the D.  This was used from version 1.0 - 2.6.  They also implemented an even-odd numbering system where the B number even for stable releases and odds for developmental releases.  This meant that the 2.5 kernel was the developmental release of what became 2.6. 

the very beginning though was charted with .01 to .12, then .95 to 1.0. 

Works Cited:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#Version_numbering

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_versioning#Odd-numbered_versions_for_development_releases