Linux 4.0 may have only bug fixes, no new features

November 04, 2013

Linux operating system creator Linus Torvalds has proposed that Linux 4.0, an upcoming release of the open-source software, should be dedicated to stability and bug fixing.Although his initial reaction to a suggestion for a separate bug-fixing release from Dirk Hohndel, chief Linux and open source technologist at Intel, was to criticize it, as "I didn't see most of us having the attention span required for that," Torvalds is now asking for comments on a proposal to have Linux 4.0 as the bug-fix release in about a year's time.Hohndel discussed a bugs fixing release at LinuxCon Europe in Edinburgh, U.K., last month. He asked Torvalds during a Q&A session whether he thought the focus of releases was too much on speed and adding new features, and maybe Linux developers should take a step back and have a release focused on bug-fixes and stability, as there was a mention that the latest stable kernel had over 4,000 known bugs."And the reason I mention '4.0' is that it would be a lovely time to do that," Torvalds wrote Sunday. "Roughly a years heads-up that 'ok, after 3.19 (or whatever), we're doing a release with *just* fixes, and then that becomes 4.0'" Torvalds was initially concerned that a bug-fixing and stability release alone would not be of interest to developers, who would do new features instead.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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