The upcoming 3.3 release of the Linux kernel will be the first to contain more than 15 million lines of kernel source code – the milestone includes the comments, blank lines, documentation, scripts and userland tools included with the kernel. Three quarters of the lines are drivers, filesystems and architecture-specific code. A detailed analysis of the kernel sources can be found in the current Kernel Log. The kernel hit the 10 million line mark in October 2008.

Kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced that Linux 3.0, which had been designated as a stable kernel, will be promoted to long-term kernel status and supported for at least two years – the developers typically only support the current kernel until a short time after the release of its successor. Support for a specific version of Linux can also vary depending on how widely it is used. Linux 2.6.32, for example, is used in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL6) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES11).

See also:

(crve)