Ahmad Samir a écrit :
On 2 October 2010 14:50, Jérôme Martin<[email protected]> wrote:
Le vendredi 1 octobre 2010, Olivier Méjean a écrit :
Le vendredi 1 octobre 2010 08:51:34, atilla ontas a écrit :
What's your opinion?
What about a rolling distribution ? As an user (just plain user) i do not
think that installing a distribution is a goal, just a mean to use my
computer, so i wish i could not spend time installing a distribution every
6 months or every year.
Just because there is a new version of the distro every 6 months doesn't
mean you have to install it. It just means that there is a truely
stable version every 6 months. Some users will want to upgrade every 6
months, and some every 2 years (or whatever the maximum support
period). Many may prefer to wait 3 months after release to ensure that
the minor bugs remaining are found.
In the meantime, just use the upgrade functions -- Mandriva, which we
will presumably follow initially allows upgrading for any/all of
security-correctives, other-bug-correctives, general-upgrades, and
backports.
The advantage of a new version of Mageia every 6 months is that it is a
collection of software that works well (except for inevitable minor
bugs) with versions that work together. Some users, like myself, prefer
to upgrade every 6 months.
Also, new users would prefer to start with a relatively recent stable
version.
Creating a stable version every 6 months is a lot easier than a rolling
distro, or much shorter periods.
Note that individual applications not infrequently encounter major bugs
in a presumably stable version. For a distro, creating frequent stable
versions would be much more problematic.
The down side of stable versions every 6 months is somewhat less recent
software, but those who want more recent can always download a backport.
My opinion is nearly the same: what is the need to provide a new version each
6 months? The marketing point of view is not a valid answer since we do not
need to satsify shareholders or follow the market.
Yes, but you have a distro to maintain, a reputation to uphold...
Very important
So when a new version is needed? My point of view is that a new version is
needed when a big change will occur for exemple a new major release of KDE or
gnome, Xorg, perl, python, jdk, ...
This would not be workable. Even though many applications do produce
major releases about every 6 months, they rarely coincide. As well as
often being delayed due to unexpected bugs. Do we really want a new
release every few months ?
It is much more useful for a major distribution (as hopefully Mageia
becomes) to have releases at more or less predictable intervals.
We need to change our view. Actually, the date of the release is decide and
the deciders (maketting, CEO, CTO, ?) choose which softwares will be include.
I propose to look at release date of the main softwares and decide when a new
version will be proposed.
Hmm, no, IINM, that would be the release engineers job.
For smaller software, we do not need to wait for a new version of the distro.
Just provide it as we do with the backport repository.
New version => new features + new bugs; anyone who ran cooker for a
good amount of time have witnessed this fact....
And no, rolling distro does mean use cauldron, since the system is not
supposed to work properly and where critical breakage can appear.
Ah, yes, so you want a rolling release, just like Cauldron will be,
but that's not broken; now how should one go about guaranteeing that
this will actually work out OK?
A rolling distro means double work for the devs and packagers as a new
version may just introduce new bugs too, now they don't provide the
new versions in a controlled development release where you're warned
that "this is a development release not suitable for day-to-day
production machines", or in a "unsupported backports" repo, no, it'll
just go to the stable release too.....
I would say a lot more than double the work. And more than double the
resources.
Now don't only think about a Mageia installation on a personal
computer, where even if the system is totally hosed you can easily do
a new install or restore a backup (then update to latest), but you
also have to bear in mind users who have servers doing all sorts of
jobs, they want stability over new-shiny-versions; the same goes for
school/university labs... etc.
And even for personal use, not many would appreciate having to do an
unanticipated reinstall or restore from backup. Particularly those who
want to avoid upgrading their distro every 6 months. ;)
Rolling distro, anyone ?
- André (andre999)
