Then this post might be just for you. After version 0.03, Linus bumped the version number up to 0.10, as more people started to work on the system. This was in March of 1992. As of the time of this writing, the current kernel version is 1.1 patchlevel 52, and 1.2 is right around the corner. Almost all of the major free software packages have been ported to Linux, and commercial software is becoming available.
Much more hardware is supported than in original versions of the kernel.
Many people have executed benchmarks on 80486 Linux systems and found them comparable with mid-range workstations from Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment Corporation.