From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 21 23:19:17 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 75BD9106564A; Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:19:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from phk@critter.freebsd.dk) Received: from phk.freebsd.dk (phk.freebsd.dk [130.225.244.222]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3820A8FC17; Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:19:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: from critter.freebsd.dk (critter.freebsd.dk [192.168.61.3]) by phk.freebsd.dk (Postfix) with ESMTP id C7DE53F592; Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:59:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: from critter.freebsd.dk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by critter.freebsd.dk (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id oBLMxOOP009195; Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:59:24 GMT (envelope-from phk@critter.freebsd.dk) To: Robert Watson From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:28:00 GMT." Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:59:24 +0000 Message-ID: <9194.1292972364@critter.freebsd.dk> Sender: phk@critter.freebsd.dk Cc: mdf@FreeBSD.org, John Baldwin , freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Schedule for releases X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:19:17 -0000 In message , Robert Wats on writes: >Looking at 7.x, I'm struck by how much it has slowed down. There's a >significant user community, but not a significant developer community. This is a very important point to interpret correctly: FreeBSD is whatever its developers make it be. If there are no developers who has an interest in MFC'ing back to 7.x, MFCs will not happen, no matter how much we talk about it. Trying to force developers to maintain multiple branches will not work, they have to take an interest. People/companies who wants to see more attention to older releases, need attack the problem from that angle: How to interest some developers in this. The easiest might simply be to dangle cash in front of developers: "We offer $500 to MFC driver foobar to 7.x" But that gets unwieldy fast and is generally less reliable than one could hope. A more structured and more desirabe option is to channel such funds through either the foundation or a commercial entity, who then pays developers to pay attention to 7.x Companies who use Open Source are not adverse to paying for the service they get, but somebody needs to make it easy for them. Poul-Henning -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.