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

Ahmad Samir ahmadsamir3891 at gmail.com
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


More information about the Mageia-dev mailing list