From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 16 06:47:24 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A0D8B106566C for ; Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:47:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from andrew@modulus.org) Received: from email.octopus.com.au (host-122-100-2-232.octopus.com.au [122.100.2.232]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5AD418FC21 for ; Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:47:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from andrew@modulus.org) Received: by email.octopus.com.au (Postfix, from userid 1002) id 9DFA817D91; Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:31:24 +1000 (EST) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on email.octopus.com.au X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.4 required=10.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=failed version=3.2.3 Received: from [10.20.30.102] (60.218.233.220.exetel.com.au [220.233.218.60]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: admin@email.octopus.com.au) by email.octopus.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4AD5D17D96; Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:31:20 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <48CF5282.10608@modulus.org> Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:30:26 +1000 From: Andrew Snow User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 (Windows/20061207) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jo Rhett References: <1219409496.10487.22.camel@bauer.cse.buffalo.edu> <593618A3-56DA-4891-A4A0-690E9A9C5B32@netconsonance.com> <20080904133604.GB1188@atarininja.org> <47d0403c0809051319r3c82f87bhdb15ce5b0167987a@mail.gmail.com> <2742CAB1-8FF2-425D-A3B6-0658D7DB8F4D@netconsonance.com> In-Reply-To: <2742CAB1-8FF2-425D-A3B6-0658D7DB8F4D@netconsonance.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-stable Subject: Re: Upcoming Releases Schedule... X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:47:24 -0000 Jo Rhett wrote: > Because frankly we're going to be forced to run our own internal > release management process instead. > I guess this is not surprising, as this appears to be what every other > business using significant amounts of freebsd in production are doing > today. I'm afraid you've hit the nail on the head. Stable, Current, these words mean nothing to me anymore, I'm using 8-CURRENT to get stable ZFS with the ata driver from 7 (because 8's doesn't work), and the old BTX loader because the new one locks up on all my newer hardware. Then there's the bag of patches I am now carrying around from release to release, some for bug fixes and some for feature enhancements, none of which are in the base system for whatever reason. I think FreeBSD is getting in a difficult position now because there's so much cool new stuff being shoe-horned in, but without the necessary volume of contributors to back it up with testing and bug fixes. There's some truth to what you say, in that I would love to be directly contributing to the FreeBSD effort but instead I feel I'm running around putting out little fires all the time. Plus this era of 4 to 8 CPU cores has meant I am seeing bugs that are difficult to pin down and only occur under production load. - Andrew