Computer Junk

[vosque]

When you want to find out what the latest kernel versions for Linux are, one popular way to do it is to finger finger.kernel.org. It's quick. I did it this morning, and I was greeted with:

[vosque@magicsmoke ~]$ finger @finger.kernel.org
[zeus-pub.kernel.org]
The latest stable version of the Linux kernel is: 2.4.20
The latest prepatch for the stable Linux kernel tree is: 2.4.21-pre3
The latest beta version of the Linux kernel is: 2.5.54
The latest prepatch for the beta Linux kernel tree is: 2.5.8-pre3
The latest 2.2 version of the Linux kernel is: 2.2.23
The latest prepatch for the 2.2 Linux kernel tree is: 2.2.24-rc2
The latest 2.0 version of the Linux kernel is: 2.0.39
The latest prepatch for the 2.0 Linux kernel tree is: 2.0.40-rc6
The latest -ac patch to the stable Linux kernels is: 2.4.20-ac2
The latest -ac patch to the beta Linux kernels is: 2.5.50-ac1
The latest -dj patch to the beta Linux kernels is: 2.5.48-dj1
[vosque@magicsmoke ~]$

Holy crap that's a lot of diffferent versions. Doesn't make any sense anymore. So, I made a utility that tells me what I need to know.

[vosque@magicsmoke ~]$ metafinger
There are 11 fucking versions of the Linux kernel.
[vosque@magicsmoke ~]$

Kudos to the development folk but, wow.