William L. Thomson Jr. wrote:

> On Fri, 2002-08-02 at 17:26, Scott Taylor wrote:
>>
>> Quite possibly, but 7.4 or 8.2 will be the next "stable" release,
>> see the pattern? This is begining to get off topic.
>
>
> Are you going by the odd numbers not being stable rule of thumb?
> Since off topic I will not continue on this topic, beyond that
> question.
>

It is off-topic, but it is probably important to clear this up. The 'odd
numbers not being stable rule' applies primarily to kernel releases.
Here we have a well established precedent that is widely known and
understood. Even numbered minor versions are stable and odd-numbered
minor versions are development. So, versions like 2.2 and 2.4 are good,
the current 2.5 isn't. However, it is also widely misunderstood as many
apply it to the release number too. It should be born in mind that the
principle does not apply to point releases. RH 7.2 shipped with a 2.4.7
kernel (iirc) and that is (was?) a stable kernel (at that time).

It is news to me that a commercial organisation like RedHat would go to
the trouble of making a release widely available that was not considered
stable just because it was odd-numbered. I mean, they are boxing it up
and shipping it out to retailers, aren't they? Perhaps someone could
provide a link or a quote from an official RedHat source that indicates
the real facts of the matter.

If this is just 'folk wisdom' it certainly doesn't apply across the
board. I've been using the SuSE 7.3 distro for nearly a year now and it
is rock solid in almost every respect.


Paul
--

Paul Reeves
http://www.ibphoenix.com
Supporting users of Firebird and InterBase