freebsd 7 release date :)

[Jerry McAllister]

On Mon, Aug 20, 2007 at 05:15:10PM +1000, Sam Lawrance wrote:

> 
> On 20/08/2007, at 10:47 AM, Jerry McAllister wrote:
> 
> >On Sun, Aug 19, 2007 at 03:05:00PM +0200, Wojciech Puchar wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>>just for reference only:
> >>>Original release planned date of 7.0 was end of Jul. But now is  
> >>>nearly end
> >>>of Aug.
> >>>So Which date you guess 7.0 will be released?  :D
> >>
> >>when it will be ready. if time is more important than quality for  
> >>you get
> >>simply get -current. even if not - and you would like help testing  
> >>it,
> >>fetch and report problems.
> >
> >There was obviously no intent to challenge or apply preasure in the
> >question so you don't need to be snippy.   If you don't have any  
> >useful
> >information or at least information you think might be useful  
> >(qualifier
> >for my posts) then don't bother replying - at least not snippy, posts.
> >We can afford to be civil - expecially when a civil question is asked.
> >
> >The person was just noting that the old guesses were no longer  
> >operable
> >and hoping that some new best guesses might have been made.   We all
> >know these dates are very movable and for very good reasons.   No  
> >one is
> >pushing for low quality, hurried up junk.   But those best guesses by
> >people in the know about how the processes if moving along are helpful
> >for those of use out here in the hinterland trying to make it through
> >each day.
> 
> There was nothing snippy in that post, it was just succinct.  By now,  
> people in the know have learned that it really will be done "when  
> it's done".
> 

Read it from the point of view of a person who is not an insider and
is seeking a little help in keeping their FreeBSD life together.
When someone asks for a "guess" and the response sounds more like
'get out of my face' than anything with useful content, it is snippy.
I could have used a stronger term.

As I said, we know and even newbies can learn, with considerate
explanitory responses, that no absolute date can realistically
be named - that there is justifiably more concern about quality
than making a particular 'release date'.   But some running info
on how it is going is helpful - actually reassuring, to those of
us out of the loop.  It needn't be anything elaborate.  

Anyway, the important issue here is refusing to consider the effects
of the response when replying to a posted question, even when it is
a somewhat unenlightened question.  

////jerry