On Monday, August 27, 2012 22:05:23 Greg KH wrote:
Hi all,
As part of one of the Linux kernel Summit discussions today, it was brought up that after a kernel is released (for example 3.5), it's a bit too late to be doing testing to see how well it is working out. The .0 release is usually a bit rough, and it takes until the .1 or .2 release to get most major issues out of the way.
So, the kernel developers would like to get a wider range of testing, and one thing proposed would be to have rolling distros switch their kernel over a bit earlier to the new release than they had been doing. Specifically, around the -rc5 point in time would be great. That way, any reported regressions could be fixed sooner and get into the final .0 release for everyone to use.
Now this does place a bit of a larger burden on the users of those distros to be diligent in reporting problems, and the distro engineers to report the issues upstream as well, but it sounds like a reasonable thing to try out.
So, for the next kernel release, I'm thinking of switching the kernel in Tumbleweed over to 3.6 at the -rc5 timeframe. Does anyone strongly object to this happening?
Actually, I'd personally prefer to move to a new kernel in the .1 times instead - have Tumbleweed MORE stable instead of less. Rationale: IF we take Tumbleweed as a prominent way for people to get newer oS software between releases (especially important if we lengthen the release cycle, which is at least on the agenda), Tumbleweed should become MORE, not less stable. Factory would be where RC's of kernels get tested, and so would a possible tumbleweed-testing repository. For me as end user, I don't use Tumbleweed for testing (that's what Factory is for, imho) but to have newer software without waiting 8 months. Making it less stable would make me leave Tumbleweed and run the latest openSUSE with a large number of OBS repo's again (as I did before Tumbleweed). But this choice comes down to a philosophical question: what's tumbleweed for? Is it (as we currently advertise) a STABLE rolling release of openSUSE or is it a testing ground for new software? My choice would be obvious from what I wrote. Note that imho the choice of what Tumbleweed is for lies with the Tumbleweed maintainer - that's you. But I'd highly recommend changing our promotion of Tumbleweed if you do this (and similar steps in the direction of a more Factory-like Tumbleweed): it should no longer be promoted to our average user. And, if this is done, I'd advocate for either shortening or at least NOT lengthening our release schedule, OR creating a new, STABLE tumbleweed branch which IS meant for end users. /Jos
thanks,
greg k-h