Should GNU make 3.81 be required?

[Kelly O'Hair]

So I'm trying to work out some jdk7 Makefile performance improvements
and everything is working out fine on Linux and OpenSolaris...
Then I discover that the GNU make features I'm using are seriously
broken in GNU make 3.80 and I need 3.81 to get around it. :^(

Also it turns out that GNU make 3.78.1 and 3.79 are definitely out
of the question because they don't even implement some the make
functions I need. I suspect many people still use GNU make 3.78.1
or 3.79.

So do I continue on, and assume a new requirement to upgrade to GNU make
3.81 because of these changes (on all platforms), or do I go back to the
drawing board and try and make the changes work with 3.80, or even
3.78.1 ???

-kto