Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sat, 24 Nov 2001 23:27:33 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sat, 24 Nov 2001 23:27:23 -0500 Received: from dsl-65-186-161-49.telocity.com ([65.186.161.49]:13062 "EHLO nic.osagesoftware.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sat, 24 Nov 2001 23:27:17 -0500 Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20011124231412.00b40c50@mail.osagesoftware.com> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2001 23:27:14 -0500 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org From: David Relson Subject: Kernel Releases Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Greetings to All, Over the past few months, I've been listening in on LKML, with occasional, minor comments - mostly to help newbies. Now, I think it's time for a suggestion ... As we all know, several of the recent releases have had defects that have __required__ patches before they could be built (or used safely). Problems with symlinks, loopbacks, and unmount come to mind as being like this. They are all show stoppers that required immediate fixes and the creation of a new release or of the next -pre1 version. I have a tendency to tink that it's better to be running a released kernel, than a pre-release kernel. I'd much rather be running a kernel named 2.4.x than a kernel named 2.4.y-pre?. With the recent problems, the working versions tend to be the -pre1 or -pre2 releases, not the released one. With a bit of QA, I think we can have 2.4.x releases be the stable releases. Here's how... When the kernel maintainer, now Marcelo for 2.4, is ready to release the next kernel, for example 2.4.16, I suggest he switch from "pre?" to "-rc1" (as in release candidate). A day or two with -rc1 will quickly show if it has a show stopper. If so, then the minor fixes (and nothing else) go into -rc2. A day or two ..., and either -rc3 appears or we have a stable release and 2.4.16 is ready to be released. Let's go the extra distance and have the releases be usable, stable kernels! It's what users want and it's within the abilities of the developers to produce. Let's do it :-) David - 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/