From owner-freebsd-stable Fri Mar 16 21:22: 6 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from guru.mired.org (okc-65-26-235-186.mmcable.com [65.26.235.186]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 9C40837B718 for ; Fri, 16 Mar 2001 21:22:02 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mwm@mired.org) Received: (qmail 9031 invoked by uid 100); 17 Mar 2001 05:22:01 -0000 From: Mike Meyer MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <15026.62584.999579.19774@guru.mired.org> Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 23:22:00 -0600 To: Francisco Reyes Cc: Mike Meyer , Haikal Saadh , Subject: Re: 4.3-BETA In-Reply-To: References: <15025.56670.539540.505724@guru.mired.org> X-Mailer: VM 6.89 under 21.1 (patch 14) "Cuyahoga Valley" XEmacs Lucid X-face: "5Mnwy%?j>IIV\)A=):rjWL~NB2aH[}Yq8Z=u~vJ`"(,&SiLvbbz2W`;h9L,Yg`+vb1>RG% *h+%X^n0EZd>TM8_IB;a8F?(Fb"lw'IgCoyM.[Lg#r\ Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Francisco Reyes types: > On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, Mike Meyer wrote: > > Haikal Saadh types: > > > > > > --- Matthew Emmerton wrote: > > > > > What is a BETA system? Is it similiar to CURRENT? > > > > > > > > Please search through the mailing list archives > > > > before asking questions. > > > > This has been answered many times over the last two > > > > weeks. > > > Or maybe just read the FAQ > http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/admin.html#dmin.html#RELEASE-CANDIDATE >, > > which makes it clear that the name changes just identify what point of > > the release cycle that particular snapshot of -STABLE is at. > I have seen several people tell Haikal to read the FAQ, etc.... > I really have to agree with him. I don't think having a "Beta" label on > what is defined in the handbook as "Stable" is a good idea. > > By definition a "new user" to FreeBSD is someone who doesn't know yet > what are the right places to read/check. In that case, where did they find the information needed to upgrade to -STABLE? > I think responses like the ones he got are the reason we consistantly over > the years get views of sometimes been unfrienly to new users. We're definitely friendlier to people who show evidence of having done some research themselves than to those who don't show that evidence. Personally, I always provide a pointer to existing documentation rather than type it in myself. That saves me typing, and the users should learn about another valuable resource that works faster than the mail lists. Haikal wasn't asking for help, he was suggesting inappropriate changes to the system to try and help people who had gotten past the newbie stage - as demonstrated by managing to update to -STABLE, getting both userland and kernel - past a problem. > Perhaps a label of "Pre-Release" may be less confusing. "Beta" sure gives > the wrong impression. That suggestion isn't inappropriate. On the other hand the label "-RC" (release candidate) stil generates problems, so I'm not sure it would work. I suspect that *any* change in name will generate "I tried to get -STABLE, and got -FOO" messages. Not changing it would make life difficult for users who *wanted* to know they were getting a BETA or RC version. Possibly this information needs to go in the handbook on tracking -STABLE, rather than a FAQ. http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message