The Linux release cycle has been essentially stable with time-based releases 2-3 months apart for the past 8 years or so. So this shouldn't be all that surprising.
They changed the numbering with the version 3 so while you are right, indygreg has a point too. We've lived with 2.6 for years and now they change the second most significant version pretty often. I've no feelings about it, just saying.
But that has no actual effect whatsoever, and absolutely shouldn't have any difference as to whether you use the kernel or not.
IMHO, they could have just as well dropped the 3. and just use a single integer to denominate new versions. What difference does it make whether it's kernel 3.3 or kernel 6?
