this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Not sure if it's still the same as it was back in my day, but KDE's "release candidate" nomenclature was always a bit of a misnomer. You'd never see RC1 actually released as final. What it really means is that the alpha "feature refinement" beta "bug fixing" phase is over, and it's the final testing phase for showstoppers. However, the definition of showstopper seemed always to be very wide. Thus, a lot of bugs still get reported and fixed during this phase, and RC really means "beta, but towards the end of the pipeline".
Which is in contrast to the Linux kernel where a RC can be declared ship-ready and simply get renamed.
Admittedly there's a fairly large impact difference between kernel level bugs, and say a bug in Okular...
The nomenclature is actually correct here, and a lot of other software use it, at least from everything I've seen. Release candidate means it's stable and (usually) feature complete but could have bugs and needs testing before they launch it.
Prototype --> Alpha --> Beta --> Release Candidate --> Release
It’s still a misuse of the word - if your software needs testing it’s not a candidate you would release unless you’re a multi-billion gaming company or Cisco
Production releases still need testing. There are always bugs you don't know about hiding somewhere in projects or vast complexity.
There are, but if none are found it can be released - like apple and Microsoft sometimes does.
It’s what you put in it I guess. For me that’s “Hopefully ready but it’s what we’re shipping in features and functionality”