From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jun 6 11:44:16 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D8163106566B for ; Sun, 6 Jun 2010 11:44:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (gate6.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1::1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4ADBE8FC25 for ; Sun, 6 Jun 2010 11:44:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seedling.black-earth.co.uk (seedling.black-earth.co.uk [81.187.76.163]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id o56BiD4M080418 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Sun, 6 Jun 2010 12:44:13 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Message-ID: <4C0B8A0C.6040903@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:44:12 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman Organization: Infracaninophile User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100317 Thunderbird/3.0.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Reko Turja References: <4C0B8074.8070004@infracaninophile.co.uk> <40CB37DD3E994EA1BBEB55E30E9398DD@rivendell> In-Reply-To: <40CB37DD3E994EA1BBEB55E30E9398DD@rivendell> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.0.1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.96.1 at lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,DKIM_ADSP_ALL, PLING_QUERY,SPF_FAIL autolearn=no version=3.3.1 X-Spam-Level: ** X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.1 (2010-03-16) on lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd releases?!?!?!(confused) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:44:16 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 06/06/2010 12:30:53, Reko Turja wrote: > From: "Matthew Seaman" >> STABLE is a development branch: it's called 'STABLE' because it is >> expected to run stably. STABLE generally receives continual fixes and >> updates, but these will previously have been tested in the bleeding edge > Isn't STABLE called stable, because the featureset and kernel interface > is set, the term has nothing to do with stableness of the OS itself. > Running STABLE is equal to running beta, use at your own risk. While that is true, the concept of ABI and kernel interface stability as currently implemented postdates the concept of the -STABLE branches. For instance, the ABI on the 4.x major branch didn't really stabilize until 4.3-RELEASE. There is certainly an expectation that -STABLE will run correctly even though it is a development branch. The project's record on maintaining that over the years is amazingly good considering. Still, that is as good an explanation as any I've seen for the name 'STABLE'. Cheers Matthew - -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkwLigwACgkQ8Mjk52CukIwohQCgiiVig1Ig4U2AElabvxCqBapO kREAnR1cljT2CURA1uo890ml7Jsg2PYR =+KzO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----