Chris Jones wrote: >> If someone makes a change in the way software operates, >> he should consider (in my view) if there is any hardware >> on which this might not work. >> It is not actually necessary to have the hardware >> in order to work this out. > > Thats complete nonsense. > > You cannot, just through imagination alone expect to be able to work > out, in all cases, if some change you make to some code has a > *unexpected* side-effect on some specific hardware. We're not talking about re-writing memory management in the kernel. We're talking about the difference between linux-2.6.22.1-27 and linux-2.6.22.1-33. I'll bet the change that stops WiFi working on my ThinkPad T23 with the latter had nothing at all to do with hardware. and was simply an error in the SPEC file due to a typo or an oversight. All this stuff about Fedora being bleeding edge is nonsense, IMHO. 99% of the problems with upgrades - and there are very few, in my experience - have absolutely nothing to do with subtle changes of the kind you are talking about. They are simply due to silly errors on the part of the developer, and don't need any extensive testing or indeed testing at all. Once the problem is drawn to the developer's attention it is immediately obvious what the cause was. Nb I'm not criticizing developers. Making silly errors is part of the human condition. But let's not pretend it is brain surgery. -- Timothy Murphy e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
