----- Original Message ----- From: "Brook Humphrey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 2:30 PM Subject: Re: [Cooker] Release schedules (Was: stability (was: way of life))
> On Monday 18 March 2002 09:49, you wrote: > > On Mon, 2002-03-18 at 09:30, David Walser wrote: > > > Well, given the decision that's been made, couldn't > > > you just cut your own CD with 8.2 and the new kernel? > > > > I don't have the time, much less the willingness, to roll my own distro > > CDs, and I'd reckon neither do the majority of overworked admins (let > > alone whether they have the competence to do so). Mandrake will *NEVER* > > be taken seriously in business circles with this kind of release snafu. > Like someone else said.. in the time you took to write your emails and single out the hard working people at Mandrakesoft and calling them "dunces" you could have rolled out install CD's or been well on your way to a LFS distro. > > The whole idea of a point release is a *stable* point release. Oopsing > > kernels ain't it. Yes, an oops in the kernel is bad. Then again.. Think about one thing. At least the Linux community is trying to work with Windows users by providing SMB support at all. When was the last time you installed Windows and it recognized your EXT2 partitions or any journaling file system? Also, in any operating system, tracking down and fixing EVERY last bug before a release is impossible. I've updated my mandrake installs far less than some other operating systems. If 8.2 has a bug that makes it a non-option for your current working environment and you want to use mandrake, fall back on 8.1 until the update is available. You could always compile your own kernel if all else failed. > > I know about and understand release schedules and commitments. Believe > > me. With that said, if the release schedule was so almighty important, > > then why didn't the kernel maintainers respond and interact with those > > of us who were reporting this with plenty of time left to test fixes? I > > was so concerned about the time that I *directly* contacted Juan when it > > became obvious that not a single Mdk person was going to respond, and > > still got no response at all. Now the reason the fix isn't in final is > > that there's "no time left". WTF? There was plenty of time left if we > > could have just gotten someone on the kernel team to take us seriously. > > This doesn't exactly fall into the "gee, it would be nice if xcdroast > > works (it doesn't)..." category - we're talking about frying the kernel > > by using smbfs, for goodness' sake. > > > > I guess that's really the bee in my bonnet - that it was more important > > to get the release out than it was to get it out working. It's really > > easy to just say "update afterwards". Great, that's cool for the > > home/hobby crowd, but for those of us who have to maintain and support > > hundreds of boxen, it's not fun, and it's not funny. It's real time and > > real money that could be better spent on, say, MandrakeClub and > > MandrakeStore. In an ideal world a release date wouldn't be that important, however in a market economy you don't always have time to perfect a product before you must take it to market. As a desktop system, a samba bug is not a show stopper. I understand that it would be frustrating for you when administrating a large scale SMB network, but if you know how to patch it, simply submitting the patch as you have done and polite followups will ensure the problem gets fixed, though maybe not for the initial release. Perhaps in your case it would be best not to update all your servers/clients immediately after a release is out. Generally with any OS there is a "burn in" period where updates are released to fix minor and some major glitches that are discovered in the real world outside of testing. On a side note: Insulting the guys that make this happen is not the best way to get your point across or to ensure that the problem gets fixed. I have a lot of respect for the guys that work very hard to create a great linux distribution. I've used all the major distros and I always come back to Mandrake because I know I can email the devel guys when something bugs me and they will get around to working on it just as soon as they can. Do not take your anger out on the developers when you know as well as I do that the release date was not set by them. I guarantee you they weren't just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. As a network administrator I would imagine you understand what it is like to have someone outside of the IT field having the final say in what you do and when you do it. -Tim McKenzie
