"Depending upon how you count, Linux is between 10 and 13 years old. But to the developers and users of Linux, its advance isn't counted so much by its years as by the kernel's revision number, because that is the number that charts its steady advance in capabilities.
"1.0 was the first official release. 2.0 first supported multiple processors. Version 2.2 brought significant scalability improvements and lots of new hardware support. Linux 2.4 really broke into the enterprise server space in a big way. It further boosted scalability while simultaneously adding kernel support for USB, ISA Plug-and-Play, and other common PC hardware features. Even more important was its 'time on station'--the level of maturity and acceptance it had finally gained through a decade of development and rollout. Now Linux 2.6 continues to build in polish that further transcends its historic pigeonholing by many as an OS that is inexpensive, but only just good enough to get the job done..."
