[Eug-lug] Re: [linux] F+!*ing Gentoo...

[Bob Miller]

T. Joseph CARTER wrote:

> Debian's hit the three year mark between woody and sarge.  The latter has
> yet to be released.  The time between releases is following a trend of
> getting significantly longer.

All software projects follow that trend.  As a project matures,
several factors all push toward longer release cycles.

  * The user base gets larger and more diverse.  They have greater
    constraints on scheduling upgrades as the program works itself
    into more of their infrastructure.  They also have higher costs
    if the new release introduces bugs, which pushes for longer and
    more complete testing cycles.

  * The code base grows.  As it grows, it becomes more fragile so that
    changes must be made more carefully.  System-wide changes take
    longer to implement simply because there's more code to rewrite.

  * The development group, if it's lucky, creates more process to
    prevent destabilization.  The process slows development.  If the
    development group doesn't create more process, you get the
    situation where the code doesn't run at all (or even compile at
    all) for long periods.  That REALLY slows development.

  * The development group usually grows as the program gain success.
    In FOSS, developers find the project.  In commercial development,
    a successful program gets a bigger budget.  In either case, more
    people add more communication overhead and are able to break
    things quicker but fix things more slowly.  (The Mythical Man
    Month is the classic text on that phenomenon.)

Look at the release dates for Linux from 0.1 through 2.6.10 for an
example.  Also look at Windows 3.0 through XP SP2.  MacOS 1.0 through
10.2.  Apache 1.0 through 2.0.52.  gcc 1.0 through 3.3.5.  Just about
anything.

-- 
Bob Miller                              K<bob>
kbobsoft software consulting
http://kbobsoft.com                     kbob at jogger-egg.com