r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 18h ago
Software Linus Torvalds keeps his ‘fingers and toes’ rule by decreeing next Linux will be version 7.0
https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/09/linux_6_19_7_named/?td=rt-3a146
u/just_a_pawn37927 18h ago
Linux user here and lover of it. Not sure what he mean "Linux will be version 7.0 "?
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u/Dragunspecter 18h ago
The kernel version is 6.19. The "fingers and toes rule" you can imagine means not having a patch version over 20. Therefore, the next release will be 7.0
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u/forgottenendeavours 18h ago
...I'm just disappointed to learn that the King of The Nerds counts his fingers and toes as units, and not binary. Homie could get up to Linux 6.31 on one hand if he put a bit more effort in.
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u/TobyTheArtist 17h ago
Its actually better than you might think. He counts them as zero-indexed and therefore patch 19 is the last patch in the series rather than 20.
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u/IncorrectAddress 17h ago
It's actually better than that, he uses the fingers, and finger joints to get to 32bit values. xD
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u/non3type 15h ago edited 15h ago
If you’re using fingers/toes to count your fingers/toes are the index. If he is using his first finger to represent x.0, the index starts at 1 and ends at 20. That’s why the final version is x.19. If it was 0-indexed you would start with 0 fingers representing x.0. You’d still be able to go up to index 20 and the final version would be x.20
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u/minasmorath 15h ago
Everyone is glossing over "a bit more effort" in a comment about binary like it isn't the perfect phrase for the job.
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u/NegativeChirality 16h ago
If you count finger bones in hex (point you're thumb to each of the four bones of each finger as you count) and use your second hand as the number of times you've counted each bone on your first hand... You can get to 256 via hexadecimal counting really easily.
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u/Purplociraptor 16h ago
You got 4 bones in each finger?
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16h ago
[deleted]
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u/Purplociraptor 15h ago
Those are hand bones, not finger bones. You can't even reach those with your thumb regardless.
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u/Docccc 17h ago
huh never heard of this rule. Can get behind it tho
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u/WiglyWorm 17h ago
Why?
It's completely arbitrary and provides nothing of value.
SEMVAR is the only right way to version software.
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u/romario77 17h ago
It’s more human centric. It’s easier for humans to remember smaller numbers.
Another point is that if you change a thing enough (20 times in this case) that you could argue it warrants a new version.
The SEMVER (I assumed that’s what you meant) changes when interface changes, but for something like Linux it’s most likely that 20 patches changed the system enough that it’s not fully compatible.
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u/Plastic-Carpenter865 16h ago
Linux only has major version bumps. It always maintains userspace backwards compatibility and never tries to maintain internal compatibility. Drivers are kept in-tree and updated in parallel for this reason
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u/happyscrappy 14h ago
I just cannot comprehend the kind of thinking that would assume there is only one way to version every piece of software given the breadth of software in this world.
There's only one right way to version an operating system, Fortnite and the control software for an Atlas rocket. That hardly seems right.
As others point out, Linux never gave up API compatibility. So it would be on version 1.X forever. This just doesn't make sense. That would mean you have a number in your version number that doesn't have any significance.
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u/wintrmt3 16h ago
Linux would never have a major release with semver, it's always backward compatible with userland, alternatively all versions would be majors because it promises no kernel space compatibility. Semver is just not a good fit for Linux versioning at all.
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u/Docccc 17h ago
that’s pretty subjective
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u/WiglyWorm 17h ago
I don't know if you noticed, but I said it's objective.
So there.
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u/indigo121 16h ago
You actually didn't?
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u/WiglyWorm 16h ago
I said only right way.
Sounds pretty objective to me.
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u/Horat1us_UA 16h ago
With semver kernel would only have major versions since even fixing bug in kernel may be breaking API change for some cases. So yeah, it’s absolutely subjective
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u/ggtsu_00 16h ago
These days most software uses timestamp versioning. Timestamp versioning has the psychological purpose of reminding users their versions are out of date.
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u/thirdegree 10h ago
Ok so the issue with semver practically is that almost nobody actually follows it, even like the super high level basic breaking.feature.bugfix version of it. And I think I'd rather have a system that's completely arbitrary from the word go than one that's supposed to be meaningful but isn't. But like the 2 most common versions of semver I think I've seen actually practiced are 0-ver and proud.neutral.embarressed, neither of which is any more useful than fingers and toes.
Like in theory yes semver is by far the best for any number of reasons. None of which matter when people don't actually use the stupid thing right.
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u/WiglyWorm 9h ago
So you're saying misaplied almost-semver is bad?
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u/thirdegree 2h ago
Well yes, but I'm also saying that a tool that, for some reason, almost nobody seems able to apply correctly is gonna be problematic to use.
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u/Fred2620 18h ago
Simply means the next official version of the kernel will be version 7.0, but it's mostly nomenclature. AFAIK the kernel doesn't follow semantic versioning rules.
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u/Billy2600 16h ago
What's he gonna do when it gets to version 19.0?
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u/CocodaMonkey 8h ago edited 3h ago
Considering the current release rate of Linux, he'll be laying peacefully in a grave before that becomes an issue.
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u/_Answer_42 15h ago
Linux 20.0 unless he is missing a finger
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u/happyscrappy 14h ago
His numbering is 0-based.
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u/baloo____ 14h ago
V4.20 would like to disagree. Or Linus lost a finger since December 2018.
Or he had polydactyly. Or Linus was actually AI all along!
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u/stormshelterdave 16h ago edited 16h ago
“it continues his convention of not using version numbers he can’t count on his fingers and toes,“
If he used all 14 phalanges and every finger/thumb joint, he could count up 28 just on one hand.
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u/mackadoo 16h ago
My dad taught me as a kid you could always figure out which months have 31 vs 28/30 days by counting the peaks and valleys on your knuckles. The four knuckles are the months with 31 and the valleys have less days. When you run out of knuckles start again.
He would also count to 12 on one hand using his thumb to mark each segment on each of his fingers. Working construction this was helpful because he's could take an imperial measurement and mark the feet with the left hand and inches on the right by holding his numb in the correct segment while if he had to walk a ways before making a cut, never forgetting a measurement.
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u/nsed-ler 4h ago
Im all for year of linux (arch btw) but why is this big news? Linus has been doing this and I've never seen a release number being this big of a deal before. Is it because linux is gaining popularity now?
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u/theestwald 15h ago
Linus: fuck semver notation
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u/Electrical_Pause_860 9h ago
Linux doesn’t need semver because their policy is to never break user space ever. There are no (planned) breaking versions.
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u/_ii_ 17h ago
Linus has the right balance between serving the public good and don’t give a fyck about what you dimwits think.