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SubjectRe: Slashdot shitheads
Date
In article <Pine.LNX.3.96.990512214830.9958A-100000@waterloo.gate-way.net>,
Asmodeus <asmodeus@benshaw.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 12 May 1999 alex@eos.co.uk wrote:
>
><snip>
>> The press release on slashdot made no distinction between the 2.2.x and
>> 2.3.x kernels, unfortunately.
>>
>> How about we break 2.3.1 (intrdouce some serious disk corruption) to teach
>> them the errors of their ways!
>
> I think they'll find that out for themselves when things naturally break
>in the development cycle.

Completely random thought...

As a newbie-deterrent(*), why not put a short statement that is
printk()'ed at bootup right after the version line. I can't really
figure out how to express what has to be expressed in less than 80
characters, though. Here's some of my feeble attempts:

"This is a test release for kernel developers and testers only.\n"
"You should not be using this kernel on a production machine.\n"
"If you want a kernel for use on a production machine, try 2.2.%d.\n"
"You have been warned. You are on your own.\n"
"This release may have serious problems and may DESTROY ALL OF YOUR DATA.\n"
"This is your last chance to press your RESET button and change your mind.\n"
"Please report problems to <%s>.\n"

Maybe some combination of those will suffice, or maybe put them all
in along with a few others surrounded by a box of stars...

(*) And before anyone suggests that we shouldn't deter newbies: I do
believe that a newbie should get fair notice that, while we don't offer
any warranty for any kernel version, for kernel 2.3.x we also don't
offer any _sympathy_, and "maybe [they] should try something safer."
Also a witless distribution vendor might accidentally (cough...yeah
right) put a 2.3.x kernel on a CD-ROM and the printk() warning would be
the user's _only_ warning.

It's really just a matter of appropriate labelling: the 2.3.x series is
intended for kernel hackers, not non-hackers (although I wouldn't use
that word...it has unfortunately lost all of its intended meaning in the
audience that the warning would be intended for). Anyone who knows what
they're doing can just ignore the warnings anyway, or even remove them.
;-)

--
Size of 'diff -Nurw [...] winehq corel' as of
Lines/files: In / , Out / , Both /
Size of 'diff -Nurw [...] winehq corel' as of Thu May 13 17:14:00 EDT 1999
Lines/files: In 6396 / 68, Out 7714 / 132, Both 12346 / 182

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