Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 10:25:26 -0700 From: Jordan Hubbard <jkh@osd.bsdi.com> To: dan@langille.org Cc: christopher@schulte.org, matt@gsicomp.on.ca, rara.rasputin@virgin.net, stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Releases Message-ID: <20010409102526S.jkh@osd.bsdi.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.32.0104100342440.38514-100000@xeon.int.nz.freebsd.org> References: <5.0.2.1.0.20010409101533.00ace930@pop.schulte.org> <Pine.BSF.4.32.0104100342440.38514-100000@xeon.int.nz.freebsd.org>
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> By this designation, we could call a brake a clutch and get away with it > because it's all documented. The problem is not with the documentation. > It's with the name. That's a nice pat answer, but the problem is that for every value of "name" we propose, somebody comes forward and says "But that confuses me." We can't call it BETA, we can't call it STABLE, we can't call it RC, we can't call it PRERELEASE, because each and every one of those have had push-back from people who said it would conflict with previous definitions they hold dear. Given that, chances are excellent that any other halfway logical names we come up with will suffer from the same problem. The real problem here is that we're trying to cater to the lowest common denominator, which is stupid people who leap before they look and then blame someone else for the injuries they sustain. It is for those very same people that legal liability forced McDonalds to write "Warning: This is called hot coffee. That means it is Hot. You should never, ever dump it into your crotch or on any other part of your body which is intended to remain unscalded. Did we mention that it's very hot?" If we were McDonalds (or Microsoft for that matter), we would also stop providing access to -stable and -current entirely because it had been statistically proven that the lower percentile out there was doing the equivalent of pouring coffee in their laps and we didn't want the liability. However, we're not them and I don't think we should try to twist ourselves into those kinds of shapes. Both -current and -stable are aimed at something other than "the masses" (for them, there are -releases in handy jewel-cased form) and are well documented as such in our handbook. The masses simply need to learn to stay out of those areas. To use another analogy, FreeBSD is not just a building, it's a building with a perpetual construction site next to it which is knocking up another building. As long as the office workers stay in their building, things are good. When they wander onto the construction site without hard-hats or an invitation for a guided tour, however, they should expect to get either squished or seriously yelled at and chased off the site by the first construction worker they run into. A construction site also generally has fences around it to stop the truly cerebrally challenged from crawling under the pile-driver, perhaps we need the same. I got it - unless you provide a special secret flag to it, cvsup always uses its GUI mode and presents the user with a disclaimer and release form which needs to be agreed to first. :) - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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