On Thursday 03 March 2005 16:07, Jeff Garzik wrote: >As a further elaboration... > >The problem with the current 2.6-rc setup is a _human_ > _communications_ problem. > >Users have been trained in a metaphor that is applied uniformly > across all software projects that use the metaphor: > > test release: a useful merge/testing point > release candidate: bugfixes only, test test test > >Linux does it differently. > >It's hard enough to get users to test... now we have raised the >barrier even higher by abusing a common metaphor. A metaphor that > is used _succesfully_ elsewhere to get users to test. > >"release candidate" is a promise to users that the current tree is > close to what the release will look like, and only major fixes will > appear between -rc and -final. > >We broke that promise. In human interface terms, this is like >redefining the "garbage can" icon to mean "save your work." ;-) > > Jeff
I've seen this comment before too, and I still think it says it best: The full release s/b the last rc with NO changes other than its name. Now we are faced with a final that may have another 50k+ of patches applied over what made the rc5. IMO, in the immediately past case, that should not have been final, but an rc6. I personally vote for going back to the -pre series where we get to test new ideas & maybe morph the neighbors dog/cat. At some point it gets stable enough to call it -rc1, at which point nothing but bugfixes should be allowed in until the final. That way we have a develop, then stabilize, then develop the next, then stabilize it set of stairsteps. I personally build and run as many of them as I can find the time to do. I just applied the bk-1394-patch and its building because 2.6.11 isn't really comfortable running my movie camera yet. I also haven't built any more of Andrews -mm's since the last time I got told off about it. I can go back to doing that too, if the results of my testing it aren't going to be thrown out like the babys bath water. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) 99.34% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly Yahoo.com attorneys please note, additions to this message by Gene Heskett are: Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
