Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262357AbVAENXw (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Jan 2005 08:23:52 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262364AbVAENXv (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Jan 2005 08:23:51 -0500 Received: from hermine.aitel.hist.no ([158.38.50.15]:15367 "HELO hermine.aitel.hist.no") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S262357AbVAENXt (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Jan 2005 08:23:49 -0500 Message-ID: <41DBEC44.9080104@hist.no> Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 14:31:48 +0100 From: Helge Hafting User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.9 (X11/20041124) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Felipe Alfaro Solana CC: Al Viro , Adrian Bunk , Willy Tarreau , William Lee Irwin III , Christoph Hellwig , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, William Lee Irwin III , Andries Brouwer , Horst von Brand , Maciej Soltysiak , Rik van Riel Subject: Re: starting with 2.7 References: <200501032059.j03KxOEB004666@laptop11.inf.utfsm.cl> <0F9DCB4E-5DD1-11D9-892B-000D9352858E@mac.com> <5B2E0ED4-5DD3-11D9-892B-000D9352858E@mac.com> <20050103221441.GA26732@infradead.org> <20050104054649.GC7048@alpha.home.local> <20050104063622.GB26051@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> <9F909072-5E3A-11D9-A816-000D9352858E@mac.com> In-Reply-To: <9F909072-5E3A-11D9-A816-000D9352858E@mac.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1480 Lines: 35 Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote: > > I don't pretend that kernel interfaces stay written in stone, for > ages. What I would like is that, at least, those interfaces were > stable enough, let's say for a few months for a stable kernel series, > so I don't have to keep bothering my propietary VMWare vendor to fix > the problems for me, since the new kernel interface broke VMWare. > Yeah, I know I could decide not to upgrade kernels in last instance, > but that's not always possible. You should definitely bother your proprietary vendor all the time, they will then see more clearly that they have to act fast _if_ they want to stay proprietary. > > If kernel interfaces need to be changed for whatever reason, change > them in 2.7, -mm, -ac or whatever tree first, and let the community > know beforehand what those changes will be, and be prepared to adapt. > Meanwhile, try to leave 2.6 as stable as possible. Do you follow -mm, -ac, and friends closely? Most changes do happen in -mm first. So you have time, all the way up to the next release. Use that time to bug your vendor about the imminent change. There seems to be weeks between releases now, plenty of time for a vendor to stay up-to-date. Helge Hafting - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/