Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 10:49:45 -0800 (PST) From: Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.org> To: David Murphy <drjolt@redbrick.dcu.ie> Cc: stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Voxware is toast. Get used to it. (Re: Suggestions for improving newpcm performance?) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0003211039360.29182-100000@freefall.freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <20000321141055.E5367@enigma.redbrick.dcu.ie>
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On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, David Murphy wrote:
> Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of commercial unix
> OSes, Sun for example, and I use this example because I'm familiar
> with them, put out an Early Access version of Solaris 8 some months
> before formally releasing Solaris 8. Effectively, this is the same
> timescale FreeBSD is going to run on, but the early access version is
> labelled -RELEASE.
No, the early-access version is labelled 4.0-RC1. If you're not willing to
jump on board during the testing phase when we say "okay, we think this is
pretty much ready unless anyone finds bugs in the next 30 days (which
turned into over 2 months in the end)", then don't complain when 4.0 is
released and you find a bug that could have been fixed earlier. It's as
simple as that - if there are bugs we don't get alerted about during the
publicized "prerelease" cycle (and thanks to all those who *did* jump on
board and help us improve the quality of 4.0!), then they'll have to be
fixed post-release.
> As opposed to what? People staying away from x.0-RELEASE in droves,
> because they find out it's a beta, AFTER they've been confused by
> the naming policy?
As others have pointed out, it's not a "beta" - but it *is* new technology
which must be expected to have some bugs. This is the case *all over the
computer industry* - every dot-zero release has some level of bugginess,
because by definition the dot-zero means it's got a lot of new code in it,
and humans are bad programmers.
Cisco x.0 releases are buggy.
Solaris 2.0 was extremely buggy.
Windows NT 4.0 was extremely buggy (they're still fixing serious bugs in
it after 5 years in the field)
Windows 2000 is extremely buggy, and Microsoft rolled out one of the most
extensive beta testing programs ever - Windows 2000 was in beta for over a
year!
If you don't understand this reality, then you've either been conned by
the marketing apparati of big companies into thinking that dot-zero
releases only contain wonderful new features that you really need, or you
don't understand this game we're in all that well.
<sarcasm>
Perhaps if we ran multimedia ads across the world and charged people
exorbitant license fees for the upgrade then they'd be happier.
</sarcasm>
Kris
----
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-- Charles Forsythe <forsythe@alum.mit.edu>
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