There is obviously a trade off between compatibility and progress. I am one that thought the RedHat tradeoff level was about right. There was always the Redhat Raw Hide for more radical developments.
As an application developer we have got used to supporting applications on RedHat with releases such as 7.0, 7.1, 7.2.
One of the major problems with Linux (we have been using/supporting Linux for many years) is the frequent changing of basic binary compatibility. This is a nightmare to us application developers. The past RedHat distributions, being based on an around yearly major update with a major version number change to signify this suited us quite well, helping us cope with Lunux evolution. We always stayed clear of x.0 releases as we needed stability over new features.
May I ask:
1. Why was this change to a system of releases, that appeared to
be working well, made ?2. Did RedHat talk over this issue with customers and other Linux
users prior to changing ? This seems to have come out of
the blue ...3. Is there information, on the RedHat website, as to RedHat's new
version policy ?4. I presume that RedHat 9 will not conform to the "Linux Standard Base" ?
5. Is this change there to force all RedHat Linux users, both business
and home, that need a platform that its stable and productive
to purchase one of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages ?One of the reasons we use and support RedHat is due to the consistent and stable nature of the releases. If this is going to change we, and I suspect others, will need to rethink which distribution to use and support ...
It may be that RedHat is no longer interested in non enterprise users. If so this would, I believe, be a mistake. Linux and RedHat has been built with the expertise and testing of the huge number of non-enterprise users. If those users/developers move to another Linux distribution RedHat will lose a great deal ...
It is essential for any company to communicate well with its customers, especially if a major change to the product line is going to be made, if not customers will become confused, disillusioned and disappear ....
Terry
Eric Wood wrote:
I think that's good! We've catered to ancient programs for too long via compatibility. It's time to see what software package will have a pulse. It's time to see what dies and what is born. -eric wood
From: "Jeff Bearer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Keep in mind that the consumer RHL is going to be a lot more aggressive with new stuff, so they may in fact break binary compatibility on each release.
-- Dr Terry Barnaby BEAM Ltd Phone: +44 1454 324512 Northavon Business Center, Dean Rd Fax: +44 1454 313172 Yate, Bristol, BS37 5NH, UK Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.beam.ltd.uk BEAM for: Visually Impaired X-Terminals, Parallel Processing, Software "Tandems are twice the fun !"
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