Re: [PATCH] change GLIBC PPC64/ELF2 ABI default to 2.17

[Roland McGrath <roland at hack dot frob dot com>]

The proposed change is contrary to longstanding explicit policy.  But so is
that status quo that Adam is asking to maintain.  IMHO there were very good
reasons we had that policy, and one of those was keeping the libc community
out of bicker wars between distributions that chomped at the bit and
released something before it was declared official by the community.  

I think we should just stick to the policy, so it's GLIBC_2.19 because
that's the first glibc release that will support the configuration.  Adam
and Steven both deserve what they get.  The policy was established and they
ignored it when they started distributing binaries for a glibc ABI that was
never part of an actual glibc release.  That's the only way to be fair to
everyone (by making nobody happy).

But at the end of the day, these things have to be in the hands of the
machine maintainers.  Steven is one of the powerpc maintainers and Adam is
not.  Steven has an obligation to do what is right and proper as a GNU
maintainer concerned with all users and the maintenance burdens on the
project, independent of his role at IBM and his concern with users of IBM's
products.  But I can't make that judgement about powerpc users at large.