NetBSD 5.0 release engineering news

Some news from the 5.0 release engineering team - we're currently in the final stages of the release process for what will be NetBSD 5.0. Binaries are available for Release Candidate 2, and we'd appreciate feedback from everyone on those binaries.

We continue to pull up fixes onto the 5.0 branch, but you may have noticed that the ones that get pulled up tend to be the higher priority fixes.

We strongly feel that to release 5.0 early, without having tested it as much as we can, would be a mistake. Any criticism that we receive does not alter the fact that 5.0 will be the most changed NetBSD kernel ever. Releasing something with that many changes in it takes time, and we are determined that 5.0 will be as good a release as we can possibly make it. So while we can understand people's anticipation with this, and their eagerness to see 5.0 out there, we want to see it done properly. A release which has problems can be a negative experience, just as a good release can be a very positive experience.

We hope to see some more changes go into the branch over the next few days - they are being tried out in -current right now, and will be pulled up to the branch when the time is right.

So we can all look forward to NetBSD 5.0 coming to a computer near you in the very near future.