Never have I thought a simple command can stir up so much passion. The more I dig, the less hopeful I am that any change will be acceptable.

We are our worst enemy

First is the revered taxonomy document. There shall be only 3 components in a release number: major, minor, and micro. All must be numbers whose numerical values can be compared. The value also must be ever increasing, but not necessarily sequential.

Then the fact that Solaris has not used the "micro" component for about 10 years now. The (re)introduction of this concept is to be taken seriously and extremely cautiously. People have written scripts and programs that assume no such component. Once present, these scripts and programs will cease working and hell will break loose.

Philosophically, what exactly is a "micro" release? This thing that we call "updates" are not -- nor are Solaris Expresses. Is it right that their uname -r yield exactly the previous mini-release number?

Application compatibility? Commitments made to customers (implicitly or explicitly)? Tradition? What behavior are we trying to encourage? Rules and policies?

Sigh, again.