Linux 3.0-rc1 is here • Hacker News Board

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#11

Post by hasenj » Mon, May 30, 2011, 2:11 AM UTC

riobard wrote: post #7

For those wondering what's new: “So what are the big changes? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Sure, we have the usual two thirds driver changes, and a lot of random fixes, but the point is that 3.0 is just about renumbering, we are very much not doing a KDE-4 or a Gnome-3 here. No breakage, no special scary new features, nothing at all like that. We've been doing time-based releases for many years now, this is in no way…

I didn't know you were quoting Linus, you should make it more obvious.

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#12

Post by armored » Mon, May 30, 2011, 2:18 AM UTC

timf wrote: post #8

Linus' email is more interesting than the commit: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1147415

Although that's not very interesting either. Linus: "What's new?" Linus: "Nothing."

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#13

Post by thaumaturgy » Mon, May 30, 2011, 2:41 AM UTC

armored wrote: post #12

timf wrote: post #8

Linus' email is more interesting than the commit: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1147415

Although that's not very interesting either. Linus: "What's new?" Linus: "Nothing."

Yeah, nice. "Major version? Minor version? Revision? What're those? I like round numbers."

Why not just go to a basic increment (Linux 3, 4, 5, 6, ...), or a date-based (Linux 2011! Now with new ribbon interface!) numbering instead?

...eh. I dunno why this bothers me so much.

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#14

Post by aclark » Mon, May 30, 2011, 2:52 AM UTC

I know they invented git, but that website sure is fugly. Time to switch to github, perhaps :-).

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#15

Post by riobard » Mon, May 30, 2011, 3:02 AM UTC

hasenj wrote: post #11

riobard wrote: post #7

For those wondering what's new: “So what are the big changes? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Sure, we have the usual two thirds driver changes, and a lot of random fixes, but the point is that 3.0 is just about renumbering, we are very much not doing a KDE-4 or a Gnome-3 here. No breakage, no special scary new features, nothing at all like that. We've been doing time-based releases for many years now, this is in no way…

I didn't know you were quoting Linus, you should make it more obvious.

added the name :)

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#16

Post by j2d2j2d2 » Mon, May 30, 2011, 3:09 AM UTC

thaumaturgy wrote: post #13

armored wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although that's not very interesting either. Linus: "What's new?" Linus: "Nothing."

Yeah, nice. "Major version? Minor version? Revision? What're those? I like round numbers." Why not just go to a basic increment (Linux 3, 4, 5, 6, ...), or a date-based (Linux 2011! Now with new ribbon interface!) numbering instead? ...eh. I dunno why this bothers me so much.

It shouldn't. Open source version numbers greater than 1.0 dont mean a whole lot.

Chrome, the browser, around version 8 (give or take). How much sense does that make?

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#17

Post by thaumaturgy » Mon, May 30, 2011, 3:15 AM UTC

j2d2j2d2 wrote: post #16

thaumaturgy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, nice. "Major version? Minor version? Revision? What're those? I like round numbers." Why not just go to a basic increment (Linux 3, 4, 5, 6, ...), or a date-based (Linux 2011! Now with new ribbon interface!) numbering instead? ...eh. I dunno why this bothers me so much.

It shouldn't. Open source version numbers greater than 1.0 dont mean a whole lot. Chrome, the browser, around version 8 (give or take). How much sense does that make?

Yeah, I know. At one time though, version numbering was used as a signal to other developers that relied on your software. Changing the major version number indicated a large change -- either API, or architectural, or both -- that was expected to break software that relied on it. So then, as an end-user, it was easy to keep track of which pieces were likely to be compatible with which other pieces; if your add-on or what-have-you worked with version 2.1, then it would work with 2.1.1, and probably work with 2.2, but probably not work with 3.0.

I guess people got bored with the sensibility of that, or something.

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#18

Post by jordan0day » Mon, May 30, 2011, 3:35 AM UTC

One the one hand, the "benevolent dictator" model has shown itself to work pretty well for Linux, compared to some major failings of the "committee" model on other projects. On the other hand, does anyone think the fact that "major" changes can be done by one person who is "just going all alpha-male" will potentially spook people? I mean, I doubt too many people here on hn have a problem with Linus' personality. I imagine most of us appreciate his sense of humor and respect him as a penultimate hacker... I'm just thinking about starched-shirt types who call the shots in big businesses -- can you imagine being an IT manager and trying to explain to your boss that after 15 years there's a new major version of the Linux kernel because "well the head guy got tired of calling it version 2."

Edit: Penultimate apparently doesn't mean what I thought it meant, so, what I meant was "...respect him as a very good hacker...".

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#19

Post by marchdown » Mon, May 30, 2011, 3:38 AM UTC

aclark wrote: post #14

I know they invented git, but that website sure is fugly. Time to switch to github, perhaps :-).

There is a nice open-source (which github is not) web front-end for git repos, http://www.gitalist.com/, and would you believe it, even they use git-web on their website.

Re: Linux 3.0-rc1 is here

#20

Post by sliverstorm » Mon, May 30, 2011, 3:38 AM UTC

aclark wrote: post #14

I know they invented git, but that website sure is fugly. Time to switch to github, perhaps :-).

It may be fugly, but it's also functional

It probably works in text based browsers too