[Mageia-dev] How will be the realese cycle?

Tue Oct 5 16:10:38 CEST 2010

On 5 October 2010 15:56, Tux99 <tux99-mga at uridium.org> wrote:
+>
+>
+> Quote: Ahmad Samir wrote on Tue, 05 October 2010 15:47
+>>
+>> Again a rolling distro is something that's not clearly defined. And to
+>> be honest, a rolling distro isn't suitable for new or inexperienced
+>> users. Simply because you can't guarantee that a new package won't
+>> introduce regressions (or totally break an app), in this case an
+>> experienced user will know how to revert to an older version, a new or
+>> inexperienced user won't.
+>
+> I don't think you really read or understood my proposal.
+> I'm not talking about a real rolling distro like Gentoo, I'm only talking
+> about foregoing backported security fixes for newer versions with regards
+> to apps that don't have anything depending on them.
+>
+
+Which, if you read the umpteen emails up there :), can and will
+introduce new fixes/features and also new regressions, I don't think
+any QA team can handle such kind of flow all year long.
+
+> Mandriva already does that with very few apps (like Firefox), I'm just
+> proposing to extend that to more apps where it can be done safely.
+
+That's *one* app, and a sort of a special case, and when updating
+firefox, it's not just one package, sec. team has to update the
+localisation packages, new libnss, new libnspr... etc, as a new
+firefox version requires newer libs sometimes.
+
+> A backported security fix can introduce as much regressions or instability
+> (IMHO actually more, because it's essentially a fork so less tested)than
+> upgrading to a new version.
+>
+
+Not really, I think a sec. fix/patch has much less chances of breaking
+an app than a whole new version.
+
+> Of course it's up to the packager to use good judgement, if the new version
+> of a particular app is a complete rewrite, then it might not be safe to
+> provide the new version, but there are many case where it is perfectly
+> safe and beneficial for the user.
+>
+>> Look at the rolling distros that've been mentioned, Debian or Gentoo,
+>> right? would anyone recommend Debian or Gentoo for a
+>> new/inexperienced/non-power user?
+>
+> Sorry, but that comparison is nonsense, Debian and even mre so Gentoo are
+> not suite for novices for many reasons, not because they are rolling
+> distros.
+>
+>
+
+No, it isn't nonsense (not just because I posted it :));
+Cooker/Cauldron is the same, it _is_not_ for new/inexperienced users,
+too much work, you have to figure out when to update / skip an update,
+how to revert to an older package to get a working system again...
+etc. Read cooker ML archives, many examples on this.
+
+-- 
+Ahmad Samir
+