From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 17 23:01:18 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4E374106575E for ; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:01:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from adrian.chadd@gmail.com) Received: from mail-vx0-f182.google.com (mail-vx0-f182.google.com [209.85.220.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0769A8FC0A for ; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:01:17 +0000 (UTC) Received: by vcbfl17 with SMTP id fl17so3490432vcb.13 for ; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:01:17 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=zcxHv+PcnEuvZtxe/AEH1wIOnMJ/NbkQ8N6ko5zghEU=; b=dJ2KNmPVykx6kd9DXN9Uii+DDk6tVAzFFaxDZLtNxWdyEcQOSI9e52X6gAvNuFeQtd WH0CXCkYpt5teVKST9pGvD/PH9OhMt6WVk4Wx3XTVTQUZPn2sV8LNZeru6T+8uP1t9B2 lBeimcLozVrLP3uGYCL/DCeP2yc9JZlrmQHLc= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.220.154.10 with SMTP id m10mr11857406vcw.37.1326841277229; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:01:17 -0800 (PST) Sender: adrian.chadd@gmail.com Received: by 10.52.36.5 with HTTP; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:01:17 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:01:17 -0800 X-Google-Sender-Auth: TSy2zzaW1ul9eEzPSfnqvOqB3XI Message-ID: From: Adrian Chadd To: John Kozubik Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD has serious problems with focus, longevity, and lifecycle X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:01:18 -0000 .. I'm replying to the OP because honestly, this thread has gotten a bit derailed. If you'd like to see: ... more frequent releases? then please step up and help with all the infrastructure needed to roll out test releases, including building _all_ the ports. A lot of people keep forgetting that a "release" is "build all the ports for all the supported platforms". ... longer lifecycle? Then please step up and contribute patches for features for your favourite branch. As a developer doing this in my spare time I'm only really working on new features on -HEAD and maybe backporting fixes to 9.x. What _I_ would like is someone to take on the task of testing and backporting net80211/ath fixes to 8.x and 7.x. ... longer branch lifecycle? Same as above. None of the developers are going to reject bugfixes and backported drivers to a legacy, stable branch. We may be a bit against the idea of porting entire new subsystems to legacy, stable branches - but if there's a good enough reason _and_ it's been tested _and_ there's a need for it - _I_ wouldn't say no. If you care this much to comment on it, please consider caring enough to step up and assist. Or, pay a company like ixSystems for FreeBSD support and get them to do this for you. Otherwise you're just re-iterating the same stuff I'm sure all the developers know but are just out of manpower/time/money/resources to do anything about. Adrian (who _did_ step up and take over a subsystem, so I'm speaking from recent experience.)