From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 22 14:59:09 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 51DB21065675 for ; Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:59:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from cyrus.watson.org (cyrus.watson.org [65.122.17.42]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 201BF8FC0C for ; Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:59:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: from bigwig.baldwin.cx (66.111.2.69.static.nyinternet.net [66.111.2.69]) by cyrus.watson.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id BF85146B5B; Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:59:08 -0500 (EST) Received: from jhbbsd.localnet (smtp.hudson-trading.com [209.249.190.9]) by bigwig.baldwin.cx (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id E0E368A01D; Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:59:07 -0500 (EST) From: John Baldwin To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:42:26 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.5 (FreeBSD/7.3-CBSD-20101102; KDE/4.4.5; amd64; ; ) References: <201012220852.oBM8q2Qi039123@lurza.secnetix.de> <20101222123834.GN23098@acme.spoerlein.net> In-Reply-To: <20101222123834.GN23098@acme.spoerlein.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <201012220942.26579.jhb@freebsd.org> X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.6 (bigwig.baldwin.cx); Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:59:08 -0500 (EST) X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.96.3 at bigwig.baldwin.cx X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=4.2 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.3.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.1 (2010-03-16) on bigwig.baldwin.cx Cc: Ulrich =?iso-8859-1?q?Sp=F6rlein?= , Oliver Fromme 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: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:59:09 -0000 On Wednesday, December 22, 2010 7:38:34 am Ulrich Sp=F6rlein wrote: > On Wed, 22.12.2010 at 09:52:03 +0100, Oliver Fromme wrote: > > Erik Cederstrand wrote: > > > Den 21/12/2010 kl. 23.28 skrev Robert Watson: > > > > 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.=20 > > >=20 > > > Which pretty much sums up a dilemma in the development of > > > FreeBSD, I think. Developers want users to try out their new > > > shiny stuff, but users don't want to spend time upgrading. > >=20 > > For me, personally, one significant problem is that I don't > > have the resources to easily run several versions of FreeBSD > > at home. > >=20 > > I have a stable/8 installation, but I can't easily install > > another one (i.e. stable/7) at the same time, which would > > be required for testing and support. Well, I could set up > > a dual-boot environment somehow with a second disk, but > > that's time-consuming and annoying. > >=20 > > I also have to confess that my motivation to spend time > > supporting an "old" branch is somewhat low because I don't > > use that branch myself anymore for some time already. > > Probably quite a few developers are in a similar situation, > > I guess. >=20 > I think this is the core "problem". Statistics[1] show, that most > developers run some form of -CURRENT and also have some machines running > the latest -STABLE tree. So, naturally, no-one is too thrilled about > testing stuff for the pre-latest -STABLE tree. >=20 > We should not try to have two stable branches overlap for that long. We > are spreading our resources too thin here. >=20 > CURRENT+STABLE makes sense, always. CURRENT+STABLE+STABLE might be nice > for vendors, but in the end it's the developers doing the work, and they > mostly only care about the one of the STABLES. We should not delude > ourselves into thinking we can easily support two STABLE branches, > that's just not happening. Actually, CURRENT+STABLE+STABLE doesn't really work for the vendors either versus a CURRENT+STABLE where STABLE branches were created less often and lasted longer. =2D-=20 John Baldwin