On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 5:12 PM, Vincent Bernat wrote: > ❦ 19 août 2013 22:19 CEST, Clint Byrum > >>> Many people seem to justify a switch to Ubuntu LTS with the argument of >>> 5-year security support. This support only applies for packages in >>> main. A common example is nginx which is in universe. Packages in >>> universe are just unsupported. They may or may not get any security >>> support. If you need to advocate for Debian vs Ubuntu, I think this is a >>> strong argument. >> >> Most places as large and tech-savvy as Dreamhost are happy to maintain >> something at the core of their business like a webserver (i.e. nginx). It >> is glibc, gcc, sshd, the kernel, bash, etc., that they don't want to >> have to think about. >> >> The 2 year cadence has left users with very little time to actually >> capitalize on their investment when upgrading. If one has 10 apps to >> test and roll out on the new stable, and each app takes 1 month to get >> there, and one starts immediately on release day, one now has 14 months >> to recoup that time investment before one must start again. The only >> real answer that makes sense is to continuously deploy on unstable, >> but then you will suffer when a massive breaking transition begins. >> >> Those 5 year cycles just give users more cushion. > > Russ already replied and I agree with its reply. Just to say that Debian > usually has a 3 year support. This is the kind of misguiding that I > usually hear when people promotes Ubuntu over Debian.
I know already that this isn't a popular idea, but another option would be to release less often. If releases were every 3 years, then the support window would be 4 years, which almost gets to the apparent sweet spot of 5. Also, if freeze trends continue (10 months for wheezy), this has the benefit of reducing the freeze/development ratio; 10/24 = 42% is a rather large percentage :(. Plus, Ben Hutchings is putting together a plan to add support for newer hardware in stable releases: http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2013/08/msg00090.html Presumably, continuing to support newer hardware will improve the useful lifetime of releases. Best wishes, Mike -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/CANTw=MPS7nStpVOP+nwmZMZ68Vi6w1_X9uVzX7G8oajVe_Bt=g...@mail.gmail.com