Re: RFD: Kernel release numbering

[Rene Herman]

Linus Torvalds wrote:

> > 2.6.x-pre: bugfixes and features
> > 2.6.x-rc: bugfixes only
>
>
> And the reason it does _not_ work is that all the people we want testing 
> sure as _hell_ won't be testing -rc versions.

Speaking, presumably, as one of those people you are talking about, no, 
that is not correct.

Between 2.6.6-rc3 and 2.6.6, you merged an IDE patch that made my disk 
complain loudly and at the time I was fairly annoyed by that. I had been 
testing all the -rc's but then wondered what the point had been. Things 
could break anytime anyways so it seemed I might as well test whenever I 
personally felt like it rather than on anyone else's schedule, which is 
exactly what I did for a while.

Up to this point, I really only grab an -rc if I'm not doing anything 
interesting otherwise.

And this is just because your -rc's aren't -rc's. Yes, in a sense it's 
all just naming and I've been telling others that complained about it as 
much, but in the sense that I'm not testing as many -rc's as you would 
apparently like me to, it is more substantial after all.

Your even/odd point releases will not work. In no time at all the same 
people that now avoid -rc will then avoid odd releases, and they are the 
same people that will avoid the -pre releases. They are _not_ the exact 
same group of people that will be avoiding a real -rc as well though. I 
for instance would be likely to test every -rc you release, on the 
promise that if the thing works out it's final.

Doing -pre and real -rc will get you more testers for -rc. Whether or 
not it's enough remains to be seen, but it seems like something you 
could test out for a few months without much problem.

Add in the fourth level .k releases for real problematic bugs found 
after release as you did with 2.6.8.1, and I believe things should work.

Rene.
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