How to determine kernel version

[Ed Gurski]

The purpose of the uname command is to print information about the
machine and operating system it is run on. There are several options
that can be used. You could get any one some or all of the following
information:
Kernel name
node name
Kernel release
Kernel version
Machine
Processor
Hardware Platform
Operating system

While all your suggestions are valid, the "cat /etc/lilo.conf" or "cat
/boot/grub/grub.conf" would require root privileges. 

The "ls /boot/vmlinuz*" command would give me not only which versions
exist on the system but also the soft link to the default kernel, which
should then change the command to either "ls -l /boot/vmlinuz*" or "ll
/boot/vmlinuz*"

Thus the simplest command is "uname -a" which allows any user to see
what the current running kernel is....