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Comment by PieUser | Hacker News Reader

Can someone explain what Linus meant by "running out of fingers and toes"?

EDIT: Ah I got the joke - he meant DIGITS!

Linus used to post to Google+, so a lot of the original posts are gone to the wind, however, he originally said that he'd bump major versions when the numbers get too big, i.e. he runs out of fingers and toes to count the minor version.

Here's an article for reference (2015): https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/02/linux...

It is a reference to how children sometimes count on their fingers. It's an old, lame joke that if someone needs to count higher than 10 they can use their toes too. He's making that joke at himself.

i would think a kernel dev would know to count higher by using binary on his fingers :)

Yeah, but also clever enough to know bumping the version is less annoying - the old intelligence/wisdom split :)

Conundrum: our hands give us eleven symbols: various fingers and thumbs for 1 to 9, everything out for ten, and closed fists for zero.

While the sociologists are off figuring out why this gave us a base ten number system instead of base eleven, the computer scientists are showing off how they can count to a thousand instead.

(And also get thrown out of every bar where they order four of something.)

There are 4 kinds of people: those who count binary on their fingers, and the other three kinds can f--- off.

You can actually conveniently count to 12 with one hand. Use the tip of the finger, the first and second finger joints * 4 fingers = 12. Then use the thumb as the pointer to keep track.

A base-12 number system would be advantageous because 12 is a "superior highly composite number". However, needless to say, despite the number theoretical advantages changing from our current base-10 system is essentially impossible.

Well you could count to 31 with one hand (5 fingers = 5 bits) and to 1023 with two hands (10 fingers = 10 bits) but not as conveniently :)

Note that other cultures started numbering the individual finger bones using their thumb, ending up with a base 12 or 24 system (or so the "just so" story goes).

Regardless of its origin, base 12 is still a major part of our lives (24 hours to a day, 60 minutes to an hour, even 60 minutes to a grade in angles).

Just use each finger as a binary digit, open or cloned, and you can get to 1023. If you're really struggling to count you might add your eyes, elbows or and knees and get to 2^16 - 1. That should be enough for anyone.

The last release number was 5.19.

Linux 6.0 could have been versioned as 5.20 but Linus chose 6.0 out of thin air. Nothing more nothing less.

4.20 exists, but 3.20 and 5.20 don't. I don't think there is any meaning to the numbers. It has been "the next release" since the 2.15 branch has been abandoned.

you have 10 fingers and 10 toes. 10+10=20. So instead of 5.20, he named it 6.0

But 20 is countable with fingers and toes.

Not if you start from 0 :)

Wouldn't 0 just be all toes and fingers clenched?

Counting with fingers is 1-based.

Linus made an off by one error :)

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