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Date:      Sat, 20 Mar 1999 13:24:13 +1030
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, "Joseph T. Lee" <nugundam@la.best.com>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Use of FreeBSD-STABLE (was: Oddity in name resolution)
Message-ID:  <19990320132412.N429@lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <4.1.19990319192514.00c34220@localhost>; from Brett Glass on Fri, Mar 19, 1999 at 07:42:32PM -0700
References:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.990318091851.14678A-100000@java.dpcsys.com> <4.1.19990318110122.03f07330@localhost> <19990318232625.A62933@scientia.demon.co.uk> <4.1.19990318210045.03f2e1a0@localhost> <19990319155931.V429@lemis.com> <4.1.19990319034914.00c485b0@localhost> <19990319144842.A27151@la.best.com> <4.1.19990319165539.03f58ad0@localhost> <19990320122031.M429@lemis.com> <4.1.19990319192514.00c34220@localhost>

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On Friday, 19 March 1999 at 19:42:32 -0700, Brett Glass wrote:
> At 12:20 PM 3/20/99 +1030, Greg Lehey wrote:
>
>> Brett, I know it's difficult to get meanings across to you.
>
> In other words:
>
> "I know you think you understand what you think I said,
> but you must understand that what I said was not what I meant." ;-)

Well, not quite.  It's more like:

  "I know you think you understand what you think I said, but you must
   understand that what you think I said was not what I said."

>> Would you like to work on this text and make it explain that -STABLE
>> is the best we have at any particular time?
>
> Well, if the text in the Handbook is true, that would depend upon how
> you define "best." If there's a risk that it won't compile (which is
> what the Handbook says) or might have problems due to the integration
> of recent changes, it wouldn't be the "best" for all users. Therein,
> I think, lies the real problem. For production applications, "best"
> means "thoroughly shaken down and tested by lots and lots of actual
> users for several weeks before we installed it." So it may indeed
> be the best for some value of "best," but not for all.

The text is being overly cautious.  In particular, it doesn't mention
that all these problems exist for all software, and that despite all
that, -STABLE is the best we have at any particular time.  We have
never yet brought out a -RELEASE which hasn't caused problems for
somebody, and we almost certainly never will.  But we iron out those
problems, and pretty soon the results are better.  That's too late for
the CD-ROMs, of course, which define -RELEASE; instead, we make it
available as -STABLE.  Is that so hard to understand?

Greg
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