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SubjectRe: A Humble Suggestion for 2.0/2.1 (fwd)
Jim Nance wrote:
>
> Forwarded message:
> > From: Todd Graham Lewis <tlewis@mindspring.com>
> > Subject: A Humble Suggestion for 2.0/2.1
> > Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 19:02:07 -0400
>
> > The interim between 1.2.13 and 2.0 was _way_ too long. Linus admitted as
> > much when he was at a loss to describe the new features since "I haven't
> > used 1.2.13 in so long", or something to that effect.
>
> > Next time, I think it would be a good thing if we (Hi, Linus!) were to
> > release stable kernels with a higher degree of regularity. There are a
> > number of process-control ways of doing this, and how to do it really
> > isn't the point. If it can be done by people other than Linus, then we
> > should look at that; if Linus has to do it, then we should all be willing
> > to help, both with whatever parts of the kernel we work on and in general
> > testing/pounding/bug-reporting.
>
> >From the standpoint of software developers (I am one), the longer between
> kernels the better. Of course this does have to be balanced against peoples
> need for new hardware support and new features. I suspect that a release
> every 12 months is a good schedule to be on. We did not quite make that
> this time (I am not even sure we were trying), but it is a good thing to
> shoot for.
>
> Jim

There is a balancing act that needs to go on here, and I think Linus does try to
observe about a year between releases as evidenced by his attempts to try and
freeze the kernel much earlier than when it was accomplished. However, there are
still features that get developed independent of schedule that cry for release.
The one that pushed me to the 1.3... camp was the VFAT file system and Another
was improved drivers for my hardware. I personally see no reason why someone other
than Linus should take an effort to stabilize a release for those chosen features.
If you can convince the community it is stable and worthy of release I imagine
Linus will agree to a step. He certainly found out that 100 patches weren't
always enough if your goals are to distant. He also found out their are
adequete numbers of stable release identifiers we skipped from 1.2 to 2.0. You
know experience can be a great teacher.

hubert


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