On Thu, 2010-06-03 at 07:55 -0700, Clint Byrum wrote: > So I am appealing to you, the Cassandra development community, to weigh in > with your recommendations on making Cassandra and its dependencies available > in Ubuntu. > > Specifically I'd like to address: > > * What is the perceived and real impact of Library versions diverging from > Cassandra's shipped libraries over time. > * We will most likely conflict with the Cassandra published debian packages. > Is this acceptable? Suggested solutions?
So, the bigger problem here would seem to be one of long-term support. In other words, trying to find common ground between release cycles. I am (have been) interested in uploading Cassandra to the Debian archives, so let's use that as an example: Debian is in the run-up for Squeeze and Cassandra is working toward 0.7, let's assume those coincide and that the next stable version of Debian shipped with 0.7 (while 0.7 is still relevant/current). It will be somewhere on the order of 18-24 months before a new Debian stable release, and at the current rate, that would equate to at least 4 new major Cassandra releases (maybe as many as 6). We've been pretty good about the upgrade path between consecutive majors, but can you imagine trying to jump 6 versions? Not going to happen. And, the situation isn't really that much better for other distros. Ubuntu has a new release every 6 months, but their LTS is maintained for *6* years. I'm not suggesting that we purposefully slow development, or that we extend the period between releases, but there is a reason that people want Linux distros that are supported for 6 years, and the reasons apply to our software as well. I'm curious what others think: * Do you see a point where the pace of development naturally slows, (less low hanging fruit, etc)? * If so, what do you see in terms of progression? What would the spacing look like a year from now? Two years from now? * Is this something we're eventually going to have to discipline ourselves on? -- Eric Evans eev...@rackspace.com
