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Guessing Linux 2.6.0 Release Date
thorgil writes "Guessing about the linux-2.6.0 release date is hard, but here is a new angle (pseudo-scientific): I made a graph (gif) based on errors/warnings from John Cherry's (OSDL) compile statistics for linus' linux bitkeeper tree.
My guess is around 12th October, 2003. What is your guess and more important, why?"
is that you have way too much free time on your hands.
It's ironic that slashdot would run a story about linux today at all. But what really surprises me is that Slashdot would continue operation today, even though they allegedly support the Online Demonstration Against Software Patents.
/. staff to immediately shut down operations and support the
I would urge the
demonstration, unless they really don't care about open-source software at all.
Maybe a great open source businessmodel?
1) Do free stuff.
2) ?
3) Call your local bookeeper and gamble on kernel 2.6.0 release-date.
4) Profit!
To quote a famous game developer: "When it's done."
The question that really count is when will the first stable version of 2.6.x be out. I mean 2.6.35 or such...
But I don't think the "it compiles, let's ship it" is the criteria for releasing 2.6.0 A better way is to look at Andrew Mortons must-fix list. When most items are fixes, it can be released. ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/ must-fix/must-fix-6.txt
Should it be a linear best-fit? I'd be guessing that the number of errors/warnings will only approach zero? Much like tracking bugs.. On second thoughts, errors will more than likely hit zero but warnings we can live with.. :)
Anyway, interesting stuff
Oct, 12th is in about 6 weeks. So, because every IT project takes twice as long as you think, my guess is around Nov, 30th.
....Excuse me, but
For those of use that are running the 2.5/2.6beta kernel, what should we do when we do find bugs?
Since when do compile time errors and warnings reaching zero mean that there no more bugs in a program? Most bugs are those the compiler doesnt complain about.
What are you waiting for?
This should have been a poll. Now, it just leads to endless ramblings.
Give me my daily dose of SCO!
PROGRAMMERS DRINKING SONG:
...
99 little bugs in the code,
99 bugs in the code,
fix one bug, compile it again,
101 little bugs in the code.
101 little bugs in the code
(Repeat until BUGS = 0)
!
"Testing? What's that? If it compiles, it is good, if it boots up it is perfect." -- Linus Torvalds
So now we're guessing the release date based on when it will compile without errors, eh?
When the kernel itself is declared "released" is irrelevant to most people. If you really want the latest and greated, you can always download whatever the current version is, whatever it's called, and use it.
What's important is when most distro companies (other than bleedinge edge Gentoo and "we don't need no steenking 2.x kernels" Debian) will start building their distributions around 2.6-final instead of 2.4. For that, it's quite obvious at this point: The spring refresh cycle. (The fall cycle may have a few optional pre-release kernels, but the real action will be the spring.) Sometime in the April timeframe we'll see Red Had, Mandrake, and SuSE releasing 2.6-based versions. Hopefully they'll also have funness like KDE 3.2 and so on by then, which are just as important to most people.
When Linus says "ok, I'm done, let's work on something else" isn't important. When Red Hat says "we'll give you a support contract on this now", THAT'S important.
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
Maybe I do... Oh wait... Yeah I do...
Warning: This sig contains a small bug. ==> *
I don't think it will happen during the next 6 weeks, there are still some major things to be done. IDE still does not work as module (some circular dependencies in symbols), ISDN is still somewhere between the no longer working old model and the not yet complete CAPI support, just to name two.
>> Does it still use the SCO licensed code in it ?
'still' would mean that it did in earlier versions. This has not been proven, and based on all of the information we have seen (as in code presented in that PowerPoint slideshow) does not lead to the conclusion that the 2.4 kernel contains any code that is 'owned' by SCO.
"When it's done." I think this is a good "guess" for two reasons:
a) it's 100% accurate.
b) It didn't cost me precious hours of my life to come up with this answer.
I'll now continue to invest my time in more important stuff...like reading slashdot.
(Hey! They say it's "Stuff that matters!")
But then again, gifs and pngs are still better for line art. chunking the image into 8x8 blocks doesn't make sense for charts and low color images. In these scenarios, it's better to just use gif/png.
Hofstadters law:
"Everything takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadters law."
Douglas Hofstadter, "Godel, Esher, Bach", ISBN: 0465026567
according to the FSF gif will be patented technology in at least one country (Canada) until Wednesday 7 July 2004.
How much influence has SCO on the developers, e.g. make them response to the SCO FUD instead of fixing bugs in the kernel? That's also a sort of "denial of service" attack.
didn't Linus said that 2.6 was being released when x86 code was stable?
And other archs maybe would have to wait some minor versions?
Considering this and the graph predictions, my guess is 3-4th week of September.
I'm a chainsmokin' alcoholic sociopath, so-ci-o-path
Not that I think it's the greatest language or anything, but my experience with ADA was that vastly more stupid things that programmers (in this case me) do show up as compile time errors. Almost to the point where if a program compiled it was bug free. Of course it's still possible to have a logical errors, but whole classes of what would be run time errors in C are compile time errors when ADA is properly used with things like range checking.
... this reads like a troll, but... Eliminating warnings is often good, but sometimes will convolute code or make it less efficient. A good example is the seemingly endless type-casting circus my code ends up hosting. Regarding cooperations, it is a rare company that has effective coding standards that help and don't hurt productivity. Warning-free code should be a nice-to-have but never required. Otherwise you lose cycles to silly things when your next quarter is around the corner.
Sam
To quote a famous game developer: "When it's done."
Daikatana wasn't exactly the hit everyone was salivating over...
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
You're right, just because it compiles doesn't mean it's done, but if it compiles successfully for a while it does mean that not too much new is going on and it might be ready for a release.
All measurements of this kind have inaccuracies. Do you have a better one? If so, then let's hear it.
is that this is a slow news day.
...all forms of online protest, including turning off your server to protest or boycott anything. If you shut off your server as a form of protest, then you owe me licensing royalties. If you run your server, well then you owe SCO royalties since they own all operating systems.
So, does the person who guesses closest receive a free copy of the 2.6 kernel?
Slashdot is corporate-owned. It's a business. It makes money. They're not going to shut down their business for a day when they could be posting more SCO, "Microsoft hole," anime, and amateur rocket stories.
"Sufferin' succotash."