Re: New (now current development process)

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>]

On Mon, 7 Nov 2005, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> 
> So repeat after me: "Most people never test -rc kernels". 

Btw, the ones that _do_ test -rc kernels usually don't test all of them. 
The current model is set up in a way where there is _one_ special -rc 
kernel that we should try to get people to test: the first one.

That hopefully encourages people to try an -rc kernel who might otherwise 
decide that there's too many -rc kernels to bother with. If they know that 
all of the real development happened before -rc1, they also are thus aware 
that it doesn't really matter which -rc kernel they test, so just testing 
_one_ is very good indeed.

The first -rc kernel is also special in another way: it's the one we 
"wait" for. It's the one that happens after two weeks, and has a deadline. 
The others happen more frequently, and are really objectively less 
important than the first one.

(In contrast, some other projects try to make the _last_ -rc be the 
important one. That's totally the wrong way around, because if there are 
more people testing the last one, the testing happens at _exactly_ the 
wrong point in time from a "let's fix the problems" standpoint)

So the call to people who can be bothered to test at all: if you 
only test one -rc kernel, please test the first one. That way we get a 
heads-up on problems earlier.

(And if you like testing -rc kernels, please test all of them. Or even the 
nightly snapshots. Or track the git tree several times a day. The more, 
the merrier, but if you only want to boot one kernel a month, make it be 
the -rc1 kernel).

			Linus
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