On Fri, Sep 28, 2001, mulix wrote about "Re: New Releases": > just curious, so please dont flame (unless you really want to, in which > case, be my guest): why is this news important? what is the benefit in > being on the cutting edge and installing at the minute it comes out, *in > regards to a whole distribution*? > > the way i see it, it makes sense to be on the cutting edge of a certain > program (the kernel, for example) if you need cutting edge features or > follow up development. in either case, you get the latest code. when it >...
In the olden days, before the advent of "linux distributions", "rpms"/"debs", and stuff like that, people used to take seperate software packages, and compile them and install them themselves. When a new version of xemacs came out, you'd download the monster's source (around 20MB) and spend a couple of hours in installing it. When a new tcl/tk (say) library came out, you'd spend an afternoon installing it and everything depending on it (say, tkman, tkinfo and ical). This wasn't easy, and looked downright insane to non-experts. A much easier alternative came with the Linux distributions, and their package systems. All you needed to do was get an updated distribution once in a while (say, it came out every 6 months) and spend an hour "upgrading" everything automatically. Using the distributions' official packages was so convenient that most people (including me) all but stopped installing software from source. If I hear that a new XEmacs version came out, I won't usually bother to install it myself, and just wait until Redhat releases it in their next version. Worse, installing something complicated (like a library or big package) myself can cause a big mess - see dozens of questions on this mailing lists on why people's system broke after installing a new version of X11/glibc/qt/gtk/whatever. So people who only upgrade their software through official releases of their chosen Linux distribution are rightly excited by the release of a new version: even if all the software on the distribution is a month old (because of testing, integration, etc.), the software of their previous version was 7 months old, so the new version is a big improvement. Sometimes it only involves many bugs being fixed, but many times it involves a major leap. A first good version of Mozilla (with Hebrew support!), a 2.4 kernel, a new version of X11 supporting full-screen video and new video cards, etc.: all these and many more are reasons why users are excited about getting a new version. -- Nadav Har'El | Saturday, Sep 29 2001, 12 Tishri 5762 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |----------------------------------------- Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |What's the greatest world-wide use of http://nadav.harel.org.il |cowhide? To hold cows together. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
