Re: RFC: kernel packages cleanup
On Sat, Mar 20, 2004 at 10:08:56AM +0100, Joerg Friedrich wrote:
> Hi,
Hi Jörg,
> Adrian Bunk schrieb am Freitag, 19. März 2004 um 21:35:36 +0100:
> > below is a proposal for some cleanup of the kernel packages in unstable:
> >
> > 1. remove kernel 2.2 sources/images/patches
> >
> > The last stable releases of Debian always supported two major kernel
> > releases, and supporting 2.4 and 2.6 seems to be sufficient for
> > Debian 3.1.
> >
> > Is there any architecture that _really_ requires kernel 2.2 today?
>
> Apart from from m68k which needs this kernel AFAIK, I know some people
> who consider 2.4 not as stable as needed to be used for a
> firewall-system.
Debian 3.0 will be supported for one year after the release of
Debian 3.1. This means people who want to use kernel 2.2 will be
supported for more than one year.
Kernel 2.4 wasn't always as stable as it should have been, but the
latest releases are pretty good.
> I never understood why kernel developpers and the kernel maintainer
> decided to use a 'released-as-stable' Kernel as testing area for new
> drivers, especially for a major one like the IDE-Subsystem. Reading the
The IDE-subsystem was thoroughly tested in -ac.
The main reason for the IDE changes is simple:
Support for recent hardware.
That's different from the Debian definition of stable where it's today
nearly impossible to buy a new graphics card that is supported in
non-VESA modes under X11 in Debian stable.
Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages.
> word 'alpha' next to the revision number of a major driver is horror.
>...
Different people have different opinions about how to version their
software.
E.g. a software with an -alpha in it's version by one person might be
more stable than version 2000 of some software from someone else.
ext2fs is still at version 0.5b, but it's pretty stable...
> And 2.6 has to settle down before using it for security systems
s/security/production/ ?
> Kind regards,
> Jörg Friedrich
cu
Adrian
--
"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed
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