Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 16:00:06 -0700 From: "Lucky Green" <shamrock@cypherpunks.to> To: <freebsd-current@freebsd.org> Subject: 5.0 newbies: FreeBSD's future [was: Re: Tracking -CURRENT] Message-ID: <006d01c30f6c$3feb3690$6601a8c0@VAIO650>
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Kris Kennaway wrote: -------- On Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 04:27:53PM +0200, CARTER Anthony wrote: > I am tracking current, I would have presumed that this would be > sufficient to > know what was going on...To be part of CVS-up as well would mean probably > another 100-200 mails a night that I don't particularly use... If you can't keep up with the mailing lists, then do us all a favour and stick to -stable. ------- CURRENT Regulars: The FreeBSD release cycle is presently in a somewhat unusual situation that I suspect may not have been taken into consideration when the section in the Handbook stating that those running -current should read both -current and -cvs* was established. The present status may be less obvious to regular users and readers of -current as it is to those who have begun running -current recently. Here is what is going on: Early-adopters are trying 5.0-RELEASE. It tends to soon become clear to them that 5.0-RELEASE does not meet their expectations for stability. Please understand that whether or not 5.0-RELEASE met the official criteria for a release is largely irrelevant to this discussion. What matters is that 5.0 users very rapidly run into a situation where they need both help and bug fixes. >From the perspective of a mere 5.0 user, which may be very different from the perspective of a FreeBSD developer, running the HEAD is at the moment the only way to get the bug fixes they need. The -current mailing list is the one and only place where they can find help they not only need, but very much deserve: I fully agree that the 5.0 project needed vastly more testers to move forward. I also understand that for those testers to be found 5.0 had to be officially released. But now that the FreeBSD project has the testers it has been seeking, many of which may not have fully realized the extend of testing they would engage in due to 5.0's official RELEASE status, I believe the most urgent thing to do at this time is to answer these users' questions on the mailing list and to fix the bugs those users discover. These 5.0 early adopters, who may not be part of the usual community reading -current, are right now between a rock and hard place. They aren't FreeBSD developers, they had never intended to sign up for running the HEAD, they signed up for -current after realizing that there was no help to be had on -stable, and they can't reasonably be expected to additionally start reading the cvs mailing lists. The situation will improve once 5.x becomes more stable and 5.1 will be released. Until then, please go easy on non-developers that post to -current. They have nowhere else to go and they are critical to FreeBSD's future since without them FreeBSD use will shrivel away as 4.x becomes increasingly depreciated. Thanks for listening, --Lucky Green
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