From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 18 03:05:35 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 4A5BB1065674 for ; Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:05:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fullermd@over-yonder.net) Received: from thyme.infocus-llc.com (server.infocus-llc.com [206.156.254.44]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 136E08FC16 for ; Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:05:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from draco.over-yonder.net (c-174-50-4-38.hsd1.ms.comcast.net [174.50.4.38]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by thyme.infocus-llc.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 552D637B47E; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:05:34 -0600 (CST) Received: by draco.over-yonder.net (Postfix, from userid 100) id 565A5177BF; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:05:32 -0600 (CST) Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:05:32 -0600 From: "Matthew D. Fuller" To: Julian Elischer Message-ID: <20120118030532.GG509@over-yonder.net> References: <4F15C48F.7020302@barafranca.com> <20120117224123.GC509@over-yonder.net> <4F16331E.4000702@freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4F16331E.4000702@freebsd.org> X-Editor: vi X-OS: FreeBSD User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21-fullermd.4 (2010-09-15) X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.97.3 at thyme.infocus-llc.com X-Virus-Status: Clean 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: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:05:35 -0000 On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 06:49:02PM -0800 I heard the voice of Julian Elischer, and lo! it spake thus: > > 5 was not out on a limb for so long because it was a clusterfun, it > was out there because it was a rework of how almost everything in > the kernel worked. I'm not saying it was a cluster because it was a huge amount of very deep work; it's because that huge amount of very deep work completely gated our next release. Now, sure, changing external circumstances caught us with our pants down, and the tools we were using (like CVS) made it hard to do anything else. But that just means there were good reasons why it happened; doesn't make it less clusterfull :) The two circumstances (giant rework, and long period between major releases) are duals of each other. If we chop off giant piles of stuff to do for FreeBSD-next, it's going to take a very long time. And if we instead just set very long times (Jan 2017 for 10?! Insanity!) for -next, we're going to end up with giant reworks and huge differences. And _both_ faces are very bad. The one means we wait forever for any new work, and the other means that it takes enormous amounts of work as a user to transistion across the barrier. -- Matthew Fuller (MF4839) | fullermd@over-yonder.net Systems/Network Administrator | http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/ On the Internet, nobody can hear you scream.