RE: Linux 2.4.18 - the missing patch issue

[Jesper Juhl]

 > > I suggest that instead of the previously proposed solutions an effort
 > > should instead be made to release 2.4.19 relatively fast. Instead of
 > > including a lot of fixes, only include the most critical known fixes
 > in
 > > 2.4.19-pre1 (and maybe -pre2), then go to -rc1 as soon as possible and
 >
 > > get 2.4.19 out the door pretty fast with important fixes and leave all
 >
 > > other stuff for 2.4.20-pre1
 > >
 >
 > Does anyone know how long this bug has been in the kernel?
 >
 > If it's an old bug, 2.4.19-pre1 already has the fix, just like rc4
 > did...
 >
 > This *one* bug isn't big enough to hurry, IMO.

You are probably right, a resonably harmless bug should not be enough to 
justify a rushed 2.4.19 release. But the confusion and "bad publicity" 
/might/ justify it.
I personally don't think that the publicity issue is something that the 
kernel people should be concerned about, but user confusion probably is 
- confused users submitting bug reports and/or patches against two 
different 2.4.18 versions sounds to me like something that you want to 
keep to a minimum, and the only way I see of removing that confusion is 
to get 2.4.18 out of the way and replaced with 2.4.19 as soon as possible.

- Jesper Juhl - [e-mail] -