Published at LXer:

For many years, each Linux kernel release was assigned a series of three numbers, X.Y.Z, with an even Y indicating a "stable" release, and an odd Y indicating an "unstable" development release. Z was incremented for each individual kernel release. The "stable" 1.0.0 Linux kernel was released in March of 1994. New development was then continued in the "unstable" 1.1.z branch, until the "stable" 1.2.0 Linux kernel was release in March of 1995. Major improvements in the kernel lead to X being incremented to 2, and a "stable" 2.0 kernel was released in June of 1996. Active development then continued in the "unstable" 2.1 tree. This process continued with "stable" 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6 kernel trees, and each stable tree gained an official maintainer while Linux creator Linus Torvalds focused on newer features in the next "unstable" tree. Development in these "unstable" trees could go on for periods of multiple years before a "stable" tree was branched.

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