Why 7.0 is so late ?

[Chad Perrin]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2007 at 03:05:07PM -0400, Jerry McAllister wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 18, 2007 at 12:09:02PM -0600, Chad Perrin wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Oct 17, 2007 at 10:26:28PM +0300, Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
> > > 
> > > Traditionally, "BSD" has released stuff "when it was ready" and not when
> > > some marketting team decided that they wanted to release.  The FreeBSD
> > > team has made genuine efforts towards changing this to a more timely
> > > release schedule (18 months for a new "major" release), but there have
> > > been some important bits of kernel and userland which were a bit
> > > unstable and/or were in development until now.
> > 
> > I'd much rather that a RELEASE version is as stable as it can reasonably
> > be made than that it arrives "on time".  Seriously.  As far as I'm
> > concerned, take as long as you must to make it as stable as you can.
> > Sooner is better, all else being equal, but if stability is sacrificed in
> > any way then all else isn't equal.
> > 
> > New versions should fix things and provide updated functionality, not
> > just meet a schedule.  It's not like some kind of sales quota needs to be
> > met.
> 
> Yup.  I think that is the way all of us feel.
> Just a little more of a clue for the rest of us on how things are
> coming would be helpful.

I'd like more readily available information as well, including
information about whether certain software will be available in new
versions -- but on the other hand, I also understand that it's not always
easy for the maintainers and release engineers to provide such
information in a timely manner.  They're volunteers, after all, and I'd
rather they focus on doing the work (and doing it right) than telling me
about every step they take.

That doesn't mean I'd object to someone stepping up and volunteering to
coordinate better collection and dissemination of information -- but I
won't complain too loudly if I don't get all the information I want right
when I want it.

I've worked on software that was over its original release estimate, too,
and I know that sometimes a new release estimate amounts to "Dunno.  When
it's done, I'll let you know."

If there's something I can do to help with making such information
available, maybe I can chip in.  I guess if someone feels I can help
somehow, they can contact me at this email address.  Otherwise, I'll just
be ecstatic with the simple fact that I get software I like eventually,
and I get *much* more information about what's going on behind the scenes
than I would if it were a typical proprietary software "product".

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Isaac Asimov: "Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is
completely programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest."