Linux kernel version numbering scheme

Linux version 1.0 was released on March 14, 1994 and there has been numerous new versions after that. There are still bugs in the system (as in any operating system), and new bugs will creep up and be fixed as time goes on. Because Linux follows the open development model, all new versions will be released to the public, whether or not they are considered "production quality''. However, in order to help people tell whether they are getting a stable version or not, the following scheme has been implemented: Versions r.x.y, where x is an even number, are stable versions, and only bug fixes will be applied as y is incremented. So from version 2.0.2 to 2.0.3, there were only bug fixes, and no new features. Versions r.x.y, where x is an odd number, are beta-quality releases for developers only, and may be unstable and may crash, and are having new features added to them all the time.
From time to time, as the current development kernel stabilizes, it will be frozen as the new ``stable'' kernel, and development will continue on a new development version of the kernel.