Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754192Ab1E0Fo1 (ORCPT ); Fri, 27 May 2011 01:44:27 -0400 Received: from mail-gw0-f46.google.com ([74.125.83.46]:49902 "EHLO mail-gw0-f46.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751954Ab1E0Fo0 (ORCPT ); Fri, 27 May 2011 01:44:26 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; b=OTaeYNyl0hI0ZQMIykBoe7lv4Wq8BLp0hPW6nrB+nQyUjCJjDGSeAff0mPVVZ5Wa/F 1243f0Cs42tqpQ3fuBN3S7Y55q9Rokw53WrBc6NEEXQzRQEaFvO7YYPRscqL6QBiBRr4 oOzxMgR/JN1UH7hL7DxtfgXaMa9GGfrokIzeE= MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <4DDE81F4.8060800@panasas.com> References: <20110523192056.GC23629@elte.hu> <4DDD0E5F.5080105@panasas.com> <4DDE81F4.8060800@panasas.com> Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 22:44:24 -0700 Message-ID: Subject: Re: (Short?) merge window reminder From: Keith Curtis To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2084 Lines: 41 Many interesting ideas on version numbering schemes. I like 2.11.X because it maps to years easily in people's mind, but I look forward to seeing what is chosen. You guys break many of the rules for software development, so why not going backwards in version numbers ;-) While you are talking about arbitrary numbers and new goals, I want to offer that you could consider a push towards zero bugs. In general, as long as your reliability monotonically increases (no regressions) that is an acceptable minimum approach because it means that you will never have a customer go from being happy to unhappy. However, it is common in companies to make an effort to get towards zero bugs. Zero bugs is impossible, and that is a philosophical discussion. If you look through your current list of bugs, nearly every one looks scary to me and important to someone. You currently have 2,800 active bugs (http://bit.ly/LinuxBugs) The last time I looked, I found the median age was 10 months. In general, bugs should be fixed in the next release and so therefore 3 months. Zero bug bounces is hard for the others because they don't have sufficient resources. However, I believe you easily do. I can't say that anything magical technically will happen if you work on your bugs faster, but I can say that people I respect as much as you taught me this. My salary was based on my ability to promptly respond to my bugs, and zero was everyone's goal. Hitting zero, even for a minute, could be a newsworthy event, as another way Linux is better than the others. It also shows leadership to user mode. I sometimes get the feeling that many in the FOSS community look at bugs as something they could work on when they get bored of adding new features, instead of: "Holy poop, there is someone unhappy out there." Warm regards, -Keith http://keithcu.com/ -- 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/