From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 26 19:51:17 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B26441065674 for ; Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:51:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from linimon@lonesome.com) Received: from mail.soaustin.net (pancho.soaustin.net [76.74.250.40]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8EAA38FC15 for ; Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:51:17 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail.soaustin.net (Postfix, from userid 502) id 30E1656236; Sun, 26 Feb 2012 13:43:31 -0600 (CST) Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2012 13:43:31 -0600 From: Mark Linimon To: Erich Dollansky Message-ID: <20120226194331.GC31385@lonesome.com> References: <4F46847D.4010908@my.gd> <201202240835.32041.erichfreebsdlist@ovitrap.com> <201202261832.17793.erichfreebsdlist@ovitrap.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <201202261832.17793.erichfreebsdlist@ovitrap.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Cc: Chris Rees , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD9 and the sheer number of problem reports X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:51:17 -0000 On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 06:32:17PM +0700, Erich Dollansky wrote: > > There's no such odd/even number policy with FreeBSD-- I think you're > > thinking of another OS ;) > > > maybe something got stuck in my head with the move from 4 to 5. Yes, 5 was the Great Leap where true SMP was introduced. In the many-year-long development cycle, so many other things (IIRC geom and suspend/resume, among others) that the change from 4 to 5 was completely disruptive. We resolved to release more often so as to never be in that situation again. (Granted, probably no architectural change will ever be that sweeping again.) There is no meaning to odd/even release numbering in FreeBSD. > How easy was the move to 6 then? An order of magnitude easier than the move to 5. Although as needs to happen with each major release, some code that had been deprecated was dropped, and some subsystems which no one stepped up to do the maintenance necessary for other re-architecting were dropped as well. Each of the subsequent moves has been much the same -- a few gotchas, but nothing like the move to 5. This has been purely intentional. mcl