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Date:      Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:01:17 -0800
From:      Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org>
To:        John Kozubik <john@kozubik.com>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD has serious problems with focus, longevity, and lifecycle
Message-ID:  <CAJ-VmomM46xGk3R6a9G_KDxMvF5ETiSQPwv5ARxwBo90t4=x=g@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1112211415580.19710@kozubik.com>
References:  <alpine.BSF.2.00.1112211415580.19710@kozubik.com>

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.. I'm replying to the OP because honestly, this thread has gotten a
bit derailed.

If you'd like to see:

... more frequent releases? then please step up and help with all the
infrastructure needed to roll out test releases, including building
_all_ the ports. A lot of people keep forgetting that a "release" is
"build all the ports for all the supported platforms".

... longer lifecycle? Then please step up and contribute patches for
features for your favourite branch. As a developer doing this in my
spare time I'm only really working on new features on -HEAD and maybe
backporting fixes to 9.x. What _I_ would like is someone to take on
the task of testing and backporting net80211/ath fixes to 8.x and 7.x.

... longer branch lifecycle? Same as above. None of the developers are
going to reject bugfixes and backported drivers to a legacy, stable
branch. We may be a bit against the idea of porting entire new
subsystems to legacy, stable branches - but if there's a good enough
reason _and_ it's been tested _and_ there's a need for it - _I_
wouldn't say no.

If you care this much to comment on it, please consider caring enough
to step up and assist. Or, pay a company like ixSystems for FreeBSD
support and get them to do this for you. Otherwise you're just
re-iterating the same stuff I'm sure all the developers know but are
just out of manpower/time/money/resources to do anything about.



Adrian
(who _did_ step up and take over a subsystem, so I'm speaking from
recent experience.)



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