duration of the ports freeze

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith]

Aryeh M. Friedman wrote:
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>> I do not think we need a compromise we need a different system. We
>> need one that preserves continuity of support for existing systems
>> while the new releases are testedin a way that does not adversely
>> impact them. The priority needs to be the current user base not a
>> desire to rush a new release out the door at all costs.
> 
> Over the last few days I have read a very good book that sheds a lot
> of light on this "Beyond Software Architecture" by Luke Huffman
> (Addison Wesley, 2003, ISBN: 0-201-77954-8) [I am sure it is somewhere
> on the p2p nets].   His thesis is that there are two side by side
> architectures both of which must be in sync for a really good
> solution.   There is the technical and the marketing architectures.
> Disclaimer he a decidedly MS/mass market view.
> 
> The port freeze might make a lot of sense from the technical
> architecture but it makes horrible sense from the marketing.   I think
> the FreeBSD community would do well to consider his main points in any
> major redo of the current standard way of doing things.

Yes, but if I am going to do things from a MS/Marketing perspective, how 
about this:  Maybe the way to fix the problem is not by changing the way 
we do things, but by changing expectations.

For some reason, people contributing to this mailing list are getting 
frustrated because some of the applications are now getting to be about 
a month old.  But why should we expect to have the latest and greatest 
in version number of application?  It is because this is what we usually 
have, and so a periodic hiccup is out of the ordinary and so frustrates us.

But suppose you are running Red Hat Linux instead.  Do you also get the 
latest and greatest in this super timely manner?  (To be honest this is 
not a rhetorical question, but my guess is "no.")

In fact, who feels this frustration.  Is it the ordinary user?  Or is it 
us port maintainers who wish they could get their more recent PR's accepted?

Surely this frustration is felt by us because we have information that 
things could be a little more up to date.  But if we weren't in the 
know, then we wouldn't be so upset.

Stephen