A while ago I posted my feelings on this to Debian private, but it was _very_ ill received at the time. I'll restate it now. Commercial products do not rename their OS every time there's a bug fix! I suggested adopting a more commercial approach to release naming for the reasons it is now being done. I suggested only incrementing the revision number (i.e. issuing a point release) when one of three criteria were met:
1) The OS as a whole as been modified significantly, where significantly is defined by the nature of a change in functionality, as it impacts the user community. This may be a bug fix that's fundamental in some way, such as a major libc issue. 2) There is functionality necessarily introduced into the release as its needed but can't wait until the next major release. The Broadway upgrade qualifies as this, even though that wasn't the reason it was done. 3) There are a (very) large number of _serious_ bug fixes against the current release. Unless one of these criteria is met, the release should remain frozen, and un-incremented. Fixes should be available (and easily identified) from public ftp servers, and that should be that. Vendors are of course welcome to sell CDs including the fixes, or even just containing them. People who have the current release can then judge what they feel they should upgrade based on their needs. Having versions like 1.2.17 is very confusing to normal people (= people who don't give a rat's ass what OS they're using.) Its obvious that perspective buyers feel the same way, and experienced marketers(sp?) know this. This is why they have made these suggestions to us. What Bruce has done is a compromise to this. The name will still identify a "snapshot" of the stable release relative to a series of "fixes" against a major release, it will just do it in a less confusing manner. Furthermore, "we" as in "the developers" made a decision to organize our leadership into a group of trusted directors, and an _elected_ president. In the past, the most frustrating thing for me to read was when Bruce posted things like "I can't lead where no one will follow" since this is the definition of leadership (i.e. we don't need a leader to take us where we're already going). Now that Bruce is doing as we've asked, we're pissing and moaning about it. Come on! The fact is, in a few months, nobody is going to care about this thread, but we'll all be quite happy about being available at EggHead along side of Win98, etc. Bruce has done the right thing, and inevitably, change has consequence. The pains of this change are small and well worth it. I was one of the first people to question all of this on this list because I didn't understand it. Since then, Bruce (and others) have explained it in such explicit terms, I find it hard to believe that anyone could still be getting the wrong idea. The mechanics of how this new scheme will be implemented may be a little fuzzy, but so what! I'm sure that piece will become clear as it happens. The important thing is understanding what's happenning and why. The how part will become self evident. My original concern was the the integrity of the system was potentially at risk (even if not at first, down the road), but its clear this is not the case. As for CD sales, I don't see how increasing Debian's popularity will decrease CD sales for anyone. The nature of the sales will certainly change, but that's life. Things change all the time. Deal with it. I've recieved some very strange mail on this topic, and I am not at all interested in doing marketing consulting for CD-R vendors. However, whenever there is any kind of change, opportunity increases geometrically. This is certainly not an exception to this rule, but rather an example of it. As for the lawyers in the crowd, you guys are out of control! I always knew you guys were back yard sociologists at heart ;) Paul Serice, if you're ever in Tokyo, lets discuss politics, and beating people senseless, over a few beverages ;) Cheers, -- "Until we extend the circle of our compassion to all living things, we will not ourselves find peace" -Albert Schweitzer Richard G. Roberto -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
