[spatular]

I believe that without qualification "linear regulator" could be just anything that regulate voltage. Usually you can easily tell from schematics around it if it's some switching IC, an LDO or a module. And if you have layout or 3d render of the board it'd be almost certain.

Otherwise the person may just ask: "where are caps, or is this thing a module or what?"

[msds]

No, a linear voltage regulator is well understood as something with a transistor pass element in linear mode and a (probably dumb) control loop.

Definitely not a switcher or module, could be an LDO.

[mkeeter]

In my experience, "linear regulator" refers specifically to voltage regulators which drop from a high voltage to a lower voltage by burning all of the power in between (e.g. the venerable 7805).

They're useful if the voltage drop isn't too large and/or if you need a particularly stable output voltage; contrast them with switching regulators, which are more efficient but have some amount of output ripple.

One design that I worked on used a switching regulator to generate 5V, then linear regulators to generate something like 3.7V and 2.9V for various sensitive analog circuits.

[kragen]

No, switchers aren't “linear.” And on a schematic the regulator isn't going to be a box labeled “regulator”! It will have a part number, probably a familiar one.

[spatular]

Sorry, I meant to write "voltage regulator" about which parent asked about, not sure how I ended up with "linear regulator".

[kragen]

Yeah, a switching regulator is still a regulator.