Re: 2.4.x release process comments

[Simon Oosthoek <simon@margo.student.utwente.nl>]

On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 10:56:58AM +0000, John Bradford wrote:
> > - Kernel version releases (and -pre releases) do not happen often enough to
> > keep up with recent hardware
> > 
> Distributions typically use modified versions of the standard kernel
> anyway.  The kernel development schedule has never been based around
> the needs of any particular distribution or distributions.

I'm not saying it should, but it would be good from a PR perspective and as
an element in the reliability feeling vector ;-)
 
> > I'd love to see regular (say once a week) releases -preX releases and no
> > more than 10 -pre releases before a -rc. No more than 4 -rc's (released no
> > more than 2 weeks apart) before a new version. Faster full version releases
> > would also be fine with me.
> 
> It doesn't make sense to limit the number of -pre releases and release
> candidates - they are needed to make sure, as far as possible, that
> the actual release is stable.

The number of -pre releases shouldn't be limited for its own sake, but
rather in the process of stabilising the kernel for release. So I mean after
a couple of -pre releases start focussing on debugging and then finish with
a few -rc's before the next cycle starts. That way the diffs between full
versions are smaller and upgrading gets easier.
 
> > My personal interest in this is that my laptop is not yet working 100%...
> > (see http://margo.student.utwente.nl/simon/ongoing/jade8060.php)
> 
> I had a quick look, and it looks like it's 95% working, though :-).

yup, I'm getting there :-) Would be nice to have the smartcard reader
working as well... Some things I can't test because I don't have the
hardware (IEEE1394, wireless lan, irda). power management is still quite
magical to me though ;-)

Cheers

Simon