Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:55:10 -0600 From: Mark Felder <feld@feld.me> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD has serious problems with focus, longevity, and lifecycle Message-ID: <op.v78518no34t2sn@cr48.lan> In-Reply-To: <20120117222512.GB509@over-yonder.net> References: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1112211415580.19710@kozubik.com> <op.v78i3yxi34t2sn@tech304> <4F15B1AA.4020400@my.gd> <4F15C520.6090200@freebsd.org> <op.v78xhule34t2sn@tech304> <20120117222512.GB509@over-yonder.net>
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On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:25:12 -0600, Matthew D. Fuller <fullermd@over-yonder.net> wrote: > On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 02:50:08PM -0600 I heard the voice of > Mark Felder, and lo! it spake thus: >> >> I've seen several other things hit -STABLE right after the freeze >> ended early January which surprise me that they weren't included in >> -RELEASE and we didn't have another RC. > > You mean the 9.0-RELEASE that's scheduled to be done (after having > already slipped a month) at the beginning of Sept 2011? At some point > (well before those add'l patches you're talking about, IMO) you have > to STOP and release the damn thing already. > > Yeah, but how much sense does it make to do a -RELEASE with critical bugs? For example, gmultipath guarantees a panic on various hardware just by breaking a path. This was fixed in a full rewrite discussed this summer and publicized in November. Now anyone with shiny 9.0 (or even 8.2) running gmultipath risks a panic. The fix IS the rewrite. But it's s total rewrite and so patching that onto 9.0 as errata doesn't really make sense (rewrite adds features too), so now the choices for a stable gmultipath is -STABLE or patiently waiting for 9.1. So yeah, 9.0 slipped hard. Perhaps it should have slipped a bit further until blockers like gmultipath and the cdrom/CAM stuff were fully addressed. But it's impossible to release 100% bug free software.... where exactly *do* you draw the line? :-/ I certainly would not be better than anyone else at managing any portion of this project. I'm just glad I have the ability to find and apply fixes myself when necessary.
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