Re: patches from 2.0.x to 2.1.x

Christian Hardmeier (101502.1521@compuserve.com)
19 Oct 96 11:49:39 EDT


> Considering anybody going from 2.0.22 or 2.0.23 is now most likely to
> be going to 2.1.5 it would probably be better for them to download the
> full source for 2.1.5 directly.
>
> Patch has been known to go wrong (mainly due to the human element) so
> its a good idea to download the full source every once in a while
> anyway. Besides that it saves Linus work :-)

Do you know how nice it is to download a 5meg file through a slow, instable,
expensive PPP link? I am certainly not going to get the whole source code
from the Internet. Patches are ok, and the base tree I take from a CD-ROM.
Maybe not distributing patches for every version would save Linus's work,
but it would probably scare off a lot of users who aren't blessed with free
Internet connections. Myself included.
BTW, it would be nice if there were a skip patch from last old stable to first
new stable version, i.e. 1.2.13 -> 2.0.0. I don't know how large this patch
would grow, however. Though I still prefer downloading 3 meg to downloading
5 meg ;).

Christian