IRIX 3.3? (was Re: dog)

[donl mathis]

In article <8909181149.AA06699 at lerc08.lerc.nasa.gov>, fsfacca at LERC08.LERC.NASA.GOV (Tony Facca) writes:
> Andrew Cherenson <sgi!arc%thyme.wpd.sgi.com at ucbvax.berkeley.edu>  writes:
> 
> > In the IRIX 3.3 release for the IRIS-4D, "dog" will send multicast packets 
>          ^^^^^^^^
> 
> Is this for real?  IRIX 3.3 already?  What new things can we look forward to
> in 3.3 and how far off is it? 

Look at it this way.  It would be silly for us to think that with systems
as complex as ours, we can finish a release (e.g. 3.2) and then just sit
around for a while before starting another one -- there is too much to do.
We're ALWAYS working on the "next release", and some are working on the
one or two after that, or others that may be occuring in parallel for other
reasons.

We as an engineering department have to try and avoid talking about them
in any specific terms, *especially* with respect to dates and schedules and
stuff, because as we all know, those things are just management dreams until
the reality of it all occurs.

So unless something weird happens, there will be a 3.3 release, it is more
or less the one after 3.2, and it will have some new, better software in it.
If you want a *really good* release, though, you're going to have to wait
for it.  Also keep in mind that we know its a pain to update and convert,
so we honestly try not to overwhelm our customer base with new releases too
often.  Maybe the slightly longer cycle means we generally put a larger
collection of changes and features into each release.  If there are serious
issues that need to be addressed in the mean time, we can produce subset
maintenance releases to take care of them, that have a much shorter
development and release cycle, because they are deltas off of the base
release.

So just relax, and try not to get us in trouble!
--

- donl mathis at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA

donl at sgi.com