Recall os-release, the #systemd de facto standard for identifying the operating system name and version? And then, recall "bootloader specification", the systemd-originated (now apparently #UAPI) standard for UEFI bootloader data? Well, apparently the authors didn't want to proliferate standards, so Type 2 entries have: > Of these sections, the .osrel section is used to generate boot entries. The PRETTY_NAME= and VERSION_ID= fields in the embedded os-release file are used the same as title and version in the Type #1 entries. …which is an awfully convoluted way of saying is that this section has the same format as os-release, and contains the entry name, and the *kernel version* placed in the field normally used for *OS version*. This is not confusing at all. It's totally surprising that we got a #Gentoo bug asking us to add a VERSION field to os-release (Gentoo is rolling release, i.e. we don't really version the system), based on misinterpretation of this specification and misreading of systemd code. (This post contained sarcasm.) https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/os-release.html https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_specification/#type-2-efi-unified-kernel-images