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

Thu Oct 7 03:50:13 CEST 2010

Olivier Méjean a écrit :
+> Le mardi 5 octobre 2010 16:27:20, Ahmad Samir a écrit :
+>    
+>> On 5 October 2010 16:21, Olivier Méjean<omejean at yahoo.fr>  wrote:
+>>      
+>>> Le mardi 5 octobre 2010 15:47:20, Ahmad Samir a écrit :
+>>>        
+>>>> On 5 October 2010 15:28, Tux99<tux99-mga at uridium.org>  wrote:
+>>>>          
+>>>>> Personally I think the way Mandriva maintains both updates and
+>>>>> backports for each release is a waste of resources.
+>>>>>            
+>>>> How is it a waste?
+>>>>
+>>>> A practical example is the college professor / school teacher (see
+>>>> Fernando Parra post a few emails back); he doesn't want to upgrade the
+>>>> boxes in the lab, he doesn't care if they have the newest/shiniest
+>>>> versions, just that the distro is stable and works(tm). The same
+>>>> applies for a company, servers... etc. We aren't talking only about
+>>>> personal boxes that can break without too much drastic consequences.
+>>>>          
+>>> No need to update. What on earth is that feeling that a rolling distro
+>>> forces users to update ?
+>>>        
+>> Really? they wouldn't be interested in security updates at all?
+>>      
+> I just say that updating is not something imposed, you are free to update or
+> not to update, you are free to just install security updates. Either under
+> fixed or rolling no one is imposed to do updates. When reading the topic i get
+> the feeling that some think that rolling distro means to be forced to do
+> updates.
+>
+>    
+>>      
+>>>> 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.
+>>>>
+>>>> 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?
+>>>>          
+>>> PCLinuxOS is a rolling distro and is to inexperienced users.
+>>>
+>>> Olivier
+>>>        
+>> And nothing breaks? no critical apps get broken in that model?
+>>
+>> Personally I haven't use PCLinuxOS before, so can't tell for sure; my
+>> guess would be yes, stuff break because new versions are prone to
+>> introduce regressions. Note that this happens in cooker, which is
+>> indeed a rolling distro.
+>>
+>>      
+>  From what i've heard (mainly former users of Mandriva who switched to PCLOS
+> because they did not want to change their distro every 6 months while wishing
+> to have up-to-date softwares) there is no major break.
+>
+> Rolling distro does not mean no test for updates or no development version.
+>
+> I find it odd for a user llike me to read that we can have a rolling
+> distribution unstable, but we can't have a stable rolling distribution
+>
+> Olivier
+>    
+The point is that to ensure that the distro collectively is stable, is a 
+lot more work than just ensuring that each single application works.  
+There are a lot of factors, such as timing and interaction between 
+modules that come into play.  The advantage of periodic releases is that 
+these problems tend to get resolved.
+If there is a constant flux of applications, that will be much less the 
+case.
+If you are worried about updating as often (although it isn't a 
+difficult process), you can always update the distro release once every 
+12, 18, or 24 months, and depend on security and bug updates (of 
+course), and whatever backport and other updates wanted in the interim.
+The advantage of the current system is that the various applications are 
+much more likely to play nicely together.
+
+By the way, I do understand that many users have limited bandwidth for 
+download.
+Maybe some sort of program to distribute Mageia DVDs - for a nominal fee 
+to cover costs - would be a good idea.
+
+- André (andre999)
+