"Adam M. Dutko" <dutko.adam@gmail.com> writes:
If we're always pulling from a mysql stable release and porting their features/patches why not always be a minor number above them?
Say they release 5.2 ... we've added their patches from 5.2 but also added
Ah, but the thing is, MySQL will never (as far as we know/guess) release 5.2. MySQL 5.2, 6.0, 5.4, they've all been officially cancelled! Next version currently is planned as MySQL 5.5. So we squeezed into the spare room :)
other community pieces, improvements and bug fixes...it seems to make sense to then release MariaDB 5.3. Staying one minor above seems meaningful because we have all 5.2 functionality of MySQL but extra patches and maybe more features from the community and it isn't confusing to me. What might be a bit confusing is when you start talking minor minor numbers like 5.2.1 vs 5.2.2. We could reserve the minor minor numbers for patch updates/fixes?
This idea is of course valid in spite of the above comment.
I think Linus decided to abandon the even/odd stable/unstable game with Linux 2.6.x and from there they've been incrementing the minor minor number to indicate patch releases.
Arguably, our current numbering is a hack, although not without its merit. It seems inevitable that sooner or later, if MariaDB and MySQL does not manage to converge, some completely separate version numbering will be needed to - Kristian.