Linus Torvalds announces Linux version 5.0, leaving behind the 4.x branch that has been among us since the jump from 3.x to 4.x. As you know, the versions do not follow a logical order as in other projects, and when Linus sees fit, he renames himself and begins to develop under a new name so as not to lengthen the numbers of the subversion too long. Usually no more than 20 so as not to have too high numbers.
Therefore, this new 2019 also brings us the jump to Linux 5.x leaving behind number 4. It is nothing surprising or new, since Linus announced that that jump would be made soon, and as planned, there will be no Linux version 4.21. Although many blogs and pages have assumed that version 4.21 would come, as you can see if you search in Google, announcing improvements and news for that version that will not exist ...
New Year New Life, as they say. And developers will leave behind number four to make way for five. This does not mean a change for the end user, since development will continue as usual, without major developments or leaps, step by step, as is being done now. The only thing that we will have to get used to the new figure.
You know the Linux 4.21 RC1 being developed has been renamed Linux 5.0 RC1. As Linus has well commented "If you want an official reason, I ran out of fingers to count, so 4.21 became 5.0" the creator himself said in the LKML. As he has also indicated, it has not been made for the millions of objects in Git as was done or hinted at in the past, nor is there any major update or change to give this name. Everything is very normal ... with 50% of drivers, 10% of code for architectures, and the remaining 20% of documentation, networks, file systems, header updates, kernel code as such, ...