On Thu, 6 Nov 2003, Alexander Grekhov wrote: >> This has been used heavily all over the kernel and although it has >> been cleaned in many places in 2.4.x kernels, it is still present >> in several places. >> 2.6.x kernels should build with GCC 3.3.x just fine. > >Thanks for the explanation. Still I think it would be less confusing and >more logical to release 2.4.x-based FC1 with GCC 3.2.x and move on to >kernel 2.6.x and GCC 3.3.x in FC2. That is not far more logical. That would throw away 6 months of compiler technology development and improvements if not more, and delay them from being widely used by people for another 3-6 months or more. There is no valid good technical reason to do that. Fedora Core is for shipping new technology, and that is what we plan to do. In some cases, this means at least for the compiler/kernel that multiple compilers will be needed, and that is just going to be a fact of life from time to time, so people will have to get used to it one way or another. This isn't something new either. All Linux distributions do this, and Red Hat is no exception. We don't want to wait 6 months to use tonnes of performance enhancements and other compiler benefits because some people can't figure out how to compile their kernel. Read documentation, ask questions, learn more about the system. If you need to compile a kernel - which the massive majority of users never ever do, then you are in the small minority of people who compile their own kernel, and you, as a hobbyist need to learn how the system works. Compiling a kernel is a developer task, and that means you learn more if you want to do it. Holding back evolving technology because it makes a simple small task like compiling a kernel, which is a developer thing, more difficult for non-developers, is not something we're ever going to consider a favourable or good thing. We pay very talented people to develop new compiler technology, and that is not just done for Red Hat, that goes directly into official gcc. And we fully plan on using those improvements in our Fedora Core distribution as soon as they are stable and we can possibly include them in the distribution. The kernel on the other hand, is very picky about the compiler, and new compilers almost always change many assumptions the kernel source code has about how the compiler works. This almost always means with every new major compiler release, the kernel will need to be compiled with older compilers until kernel folk are able to completely update the entire kernel to work with the new compiler, a task that potentially takes a very long time to do, and to beta test, etc. That time period is usually longer than the time period in between distribution releases. So, while your frustration is registered and noted, your solution is not viable, and is not in line with the Fedora Project's stated goals of using new technology. "I can't figure out how to compile my kernel" is not a valid reason to throw away perfectly stable working new technology. -- Mike A. Harris ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat
