[deklerk]

Semver is very clear on what a minor vs a major change means.

> the majority of software in use today uses version numbers - they are most often used to denote new features, which may or may not have breaking changes large or small, and small breaking changes are tolerated all the time, often in minor versions

We're getting into opinion here. Let's be clear: semver very strictly, objectively disagrees with this approach. In general, this approach of "what's a few breaking changes in a minor release amongst friends" leads to terrible user experiences.

Go modules takes the cost of churn, which in some languages gets externalized to all users, and places it on the module author instead. That is far more scalable and results in much happier users, even though module authors sometimes have to be more careful or do more work.

[grey-area]

Thanks for working on the docs and engaging here, I know it can sometimes be a thankless task.

I don't think it's a matter of opinion that the vast majority of software in common use does not use strict semantic versioning, most likely including the web browser and operating system you are using to read this comment, popular packages like kubernetes, and the Go project itself in the mooted 2.0 with no breaking changes. It is highly desirable to avoid significant breakage, even to the point of ignoring strict semver and avoiding it across major version changes! So I'm not arguing for encouraging packages to break, but rather the reverse, I prefer the status quo pre go mod where packages are assumed not to break importers, though sometimes small breakage happens and/or is acceptable.

Most packages use a weaker version of semver than the one you describe, which is still useful, so I'm not clear why the go tools have to impose the very strong version which is not commonly used. The difficulties introduced seem to outweigh any benefit to me.

[timidger]

Because the version of web browser and the kernel more or less doesn't matter because they care way more about backwards compatibility than the "vast majority of software".

The kernel doesn't break user space. Web browsers' api generally remains backwards compatible (how long did it take to remove flash - and you can still install it if you want!)

[grey-area]

Prior to this change, all go software operated on this assumption (do not break users of the pkg), which doesn't comply with strict semver.

It worked fine.