From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 22 20:01:06 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 79FFD1065684; Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:01:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jrhett@netconsonance.com) Received: from mail.netconsonance.com (mail.netconsonance.com [198.207.204.4]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4DB688FC12; Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:01:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jrhett@netconsonance.com) Received: from [10.66.240.106] (public-wireless.sv.svcolo.com [64.13.135.30]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail.netconsonance.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id m8MK0w8l012258; Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:00:59 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jrhett@netconsonance.com) X-Amavis-Modified: Mail body modified (defanged) by mail.netconsonance.com X-Quarantine-ID: X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at netconsonance.com X-Amavis-Alert: BAD HEADER, Header line longer than 998 characters: References: <12...\n X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: -1.026 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.026 tagged_above=-999 required=3.5 tests=[ALL_TRUSTED=-1.44, AWL=0.414] Message-Id: From: Jo Rhett To: Robert Watson In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v929.2) Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:00:53 -0700 References: <1219409496.10487.22.camel@bauer.cse.buffalo.edu> <47d0403c0809051319r3c82f87bhdb15ce5b0167987a@mail.gmail.com> <2742CAB1-8FF2-425D-A3B6-0658D7DB8F4D@netconsonance.com> <0C2C7E9B-61E3-4720-B76F-4745A3C963DA@netconsonance.com> <658B8861-1E78-4767-8D3D-8B79CC0BD45F@netconsonance.com> <15F15FD1-3C53-4018-8792-BC63289DC4C2@netconsonance.com> <448wtpcikb.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> <34C3D54B-C88C-4C36-B1FE-C07FC27F8CB5@netconsonance.com> <58B648A5-4F9D-4C02-9A1C-21E1294DEB7A@netconsonance.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.929.2) Cc: freebsd-stable , Lowell Gilbert Subject: Re: Upcoming Releases Schedule... X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:01:06 -0000 On Sep 22, 2008, at 12:41 PM, Robert Watson wrote: > Lack of human resources, to use a vile term, is currently the > limiting factor. What happens when that is cleared is another > question, but in the end there aren't a whole lot of paths to > greater efficiency here: ... > This is an inherently manual process because security patches touch > a variety of parts of the system and each has different > implications, the tendency for vulnerabilities to come in classes, > etc. Great, thanks. Do we have any idea how much additional human resources would be necessary to extend the support period? > because there was significant divergence and maintaining three > active development branches at once (5.x, 6.x, and 7.x) was a > serious stretch. I've never suggested maintaining 3 different release versions, and I wouldn't suggest trying. When Sun, Microsoft, et al decide that they don't have the resources to support 3 major revisions, it's a pretty good reason to think that FreeBSD can't either ;-) -- Jo Rhett Net Consonance : consonant endings by net philanthropy, open source and other randomness