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Linus Torvalds has announced the release of version 3.0 of the Linux kernel. Although the version bump, which takes the kernel straight from 2.6.39 to 3.0, suggests a release of some significance, it's actually a fairly modest incremental update. Torvalds wanted to increment the major version number because he was growing frustrated with the large minor version numbers. He has been contemplating some changes to the current versioning scheme since 2008, but finally decided to act in May when the first release candidate for the new version was published. He felt that rolling over to 3.0 would be a fitting way to celebrate the kernel's imminent 20th anniversary, but also joked that the "real" reason was that he could "no longer comfortably count as high as 40." He further clarified the nature of the version bump in the final release announcement, which was posted late last night to the Linux kernel mailing list. "As already mentioned several times, there are no special landmark features or incompatibilities related to the version number change," wrote Torvalds. "It's simply a way to drop an inconvenient numbering system in honor of twenty years of Linux."