linux-kernel - Re: From 2.4 to 2.6 to 2.7?

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Date:	Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:31:01 +0200
From:	Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>
To:	david@...g.hm
Cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Stoyan Gaydarov <stoyboyker@...il.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
	gorcunov@...il.com, akpm@...ux-foundation.org, mingo@...e.hu
Subject: Re: From 2.4 to 2.6 to 2.7?

On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 08:55:59PM -0700, david@...g.hm wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jul 2008, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> 
> >>Does it have to be even numbers only?
> >
> >No. But the even/odd thing is still so fresh in peoples memory (despite us
> >not having used it for years), and I think some projects aped us on it, so
> >if I didn't change the numbering setup, but just wanted to reset the minor
> >number, I'd probably jump from 2.6 to 2.8 just for historical reasons.
> >
> >But I could also see the second number as being the "year", and 2008 would
> >get 2.8, and then next year I'd make the first release of 2009 be 2.9.1
> >(and probably avoid the ".0" just because it again has the connotations of
> >a "big new untested release", which is not true in a date-based numbering
> >scheme). And then 2010 would be 3.0.1 etc..
> 
> Ok, I'll jump in.
> 
> I don't have strong feelings either, but I do have comments
> 
> 1. for the historical reasons you allude to above going to a completely 
> different numbering system would be a nice thing
> 
> 2. I do like involving the year, but I think 2008/2009/2010 are much 
> clearer then 2.8/2.9/3.0 let people shorten it verbally, but still realize 
> that it's a full year being referred to.
> 
> 3. avoid using the month of the release (which ubuntu does), first you 
> aren't going to predict the month of relese ahead of time (so what will 
> the -rc's be called, the year is fairly clear and it's not _that_ bad if 
> 2008.4 happens to come out in Jan 2009). also too many people don't 
> understand that 8.10 is between 8.9 and 8.11, not between 8.0 and 8.2

That's probably why openbsd jumps from 3.9 to 4.0. I like such a numbering
too. It compacts 3 numbers into 2 (like we had before) but without any
major/minor notion. You just bump each new version by 0.1 at a somewhat
regular rate. Having the year and a sub-version is fine too, but I think
it adds unnecessary digits. Or maybe jump to 8.X for 2008, then 9.X in
2009 and 10.X in 2010 ? That way, we have both the date and the simplicity.
And it's not like we really care about version 1000 in year 3000.

> so my prefrence (mild as it is) goes to YYYY.r.s (r=release, s=stable)

agreed, but with Y.r.s :-)

Willy

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