Joerg Schilling wrote:
Seth Kurtzberg <seth@cql.com> wrote:There hasn't been a stable Linux kernel release since 2.4.*. Linux 2.6.* is a development series.Indeed, that's true. New hardware appears at a furious pace, and thus in many situations using the 2.4 kernel is not an option, but that should not lead to delusions about the 2.6 kernel. This isn't criticism of the kernel; the rate of changes simply implies that it's a development kernel rather than a stable kernel.This is the problem I have on Linux. In August 2004, I did publish cdrtools-2.01final and a week later Linux did break the kernel interfaces.
In case anyone doesn't know, that means "plugged an important security hole which cdrecord was using."
Coming up on three years and you still can't handle rejection. Instead of getting bad status on some vendor-specific commands you prefer, you COULD just use the similar mmc commands which other burning programs use, or detect that you're not root and don't even try the fancy commands. Since other programs can burn without using them, clearly their use may be desirable, but isn't required.It should be obviouy that it is impossible to publish "stable" software for an unstable OS.
BTW: Every cdrtools release is intended to be a "stable" release. It makes no sense to take less care for "betas".The rest of the world does not attach a meaning of stable to "alpha," in general alpha is in-house test, beta is limited public/user release, and terms like stable or production are used for versions widely tested by users. I agree that your software usually works, but having no way to tell if you fixed minor bugs or introduced major features because all are called alpha... you would do yourself a favor with more timely stable releases, so people wouldn't still be talking about the old "Pro" version.There are of course some periods when I introduce new technology where the probability to observe a bug is higherthan usual, but this is not intended. I do codereviews for every release before I publish it.
And that's not a complaint, just an observation. -- Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com> "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from the machinations of the wicked." - from Slashdot