Disappointed

[Scott Long]

Stephen Clark wrote:
> [LoN]Kamikaze wrote:
> 
>> Stephen Clark wrote:
>>  
>>
>>> [LoN]Kamikaze wrote:
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>>> Alexey Karagodov wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>>
>>>>> hi.
>>>>> i think, this unstablity happaning just because developers trying to
>>>>> make
>>>>> two systems at one time, one is 6.0 and another 7.0 current and they
>>>>> supporting old version, lower then 6.0
>>>>> i want to ask developers, why you developing new system, 7.0, if you
>>>>> don't
>>>>> finish old, 6.0 ?!
>>>>> finish 6.0, make it work, and upgrade it to 7.0 and to 8.0 and to 9.0
>>>>> and so
>>>>> on ...
>>>>> what so new and revolutionary in 7.0 in comparison with 6.0 ?!
>>>>> to use your system i must be a DEVELOPER, but i don't have so much
>>>>> time! i
>>>>> don't want to develope! i want to use, i want to help you with some
>>>>> advise (
>>>>> e.g. what feature to add, what feature to change etc), i can and i
>>>>> want to
>>>>> share some of my hardware to feet your needs, make a mirror, make a 
>>>>> test
>>>>> server/workstation/notebook/PDA etc. i'm not an freebsd developer.
>>>>> i'm just
>>>>> admin and a user.
>>>>> your system is most greatest i ever seen. another wonderful system is
>>>>> SOLARIS.
>>>>> but your's is so unstable ...
>>>>>  
>>>>>       
>>>>
>>>> All this is described in many places. It all comes down to this: if you
>>>> don't want to be a developer, JUST USE THE RELEASE BRANCH. That means
>>>> Releng_6_0 for now.
>>>>
>>>> Stable only means compatible to previous versions of the same branch.
>>>> Not that the system is stable.
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>
>>> Who in their right mind would think that "stable" actually means
>>> "stable"!!!
>>>   
>>
>>
>> It does mean that the API is stable.
>>                               /\
>>                               ||
>>
>> So that you can use a driver written for 6.0 on any 6.x build. And that
>> you can run software compiled for 6.0 on all following versions of the
>> 6.x branch without a compatibility layer.
>>
>>  
>>
> Then maybe it should be called api-stable!!

There are various degrees of stability:

7-CURRENT: active development, lots of experimental and possibly unsafe 
things in there.

6-STABLE: proven changes from 7-CURRENT go in here.  API is mandated to 
be stable, and only well tested and fucntionally stable changes should
go in.  However, sometimes things break accidentally.

6.0-STABLE: the changes in here are for security fixes and high-profile
bugfixes.

So relatively speaking, you have 'Unstable' 'Stable' and 'Ultra-stable'.
We do our best to keep 6-STABLE free of problems, but there are 
occasional problems.  It's up to the user to decide which stream is
appropriate for them, and to follow the corresponding mailing lists
to catch important notices about changes.

Scott