This is a pretty dumb question, but I'm thinking of switching to Linux and was just curious. Windows comes out with a new operating system (such as XP) and then provides service packs. Does Linux do the same? I was thinking of Redhat and it seems like they come out with a new OS every few months. Can someone tell me the differences between versions? Like X.0, X.1, X.2, etc. I don't want to buy a version and then have a new one come out right away. What is their updating process?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to LQ, Socks.

Well, yes, no, and maybe. The thing about Linux is that it is always in development, and so it the majority of its software. If you wanted to be on the bleeding edge and have the most recent updates for everything, then yes. If you're quite happy running with a system that you know to work, then no. If you're just tinkering with Linux and you want to keep abrest of the new features, then maybe.

The numbering system is fairly simple:
x.0 = The first release in the X series. Likely to be quite buggy, and is normally a complete, or almost complete, rehaul over the old code from the w series.
x.1 = The second release in the X series. Updates to the first, probably a tweaked user interface. Some major changes, but not too much.
x.n = The n'th release in the X series. Unlike maths, when you reach 0.9 you do not necessarily then go to 1.0... instead it goes to 0.10
Most of the time, since there are so many updates for this and patches for that, the next release is only around 6 months down the line. Once you're happy with your working environment, though, you don't need to change everything and go for the next version, you can just update what you need.

I hope this is making sense.

If you like updates, I strongly recommend RH 7* and 8. RH has their own update files put on the Web very often. Major to minor. Auto or manual. 8.0 has an icon in the lower-right corner. You click it to update system. It can check for updates auto.

On other systems except maybe Mandrake and SuSE, you'd have to do updates manually. Like Slack, I d'l files and drop to text mode.

If there's no updates for a rare distro, you can go through the trouble to compile the source. I wouldn't recommend it.