[Mageia-discuss] [Poll] What are your top requirements?

[Marja van Waes]

On 28/01/12 22:37, imnotpc wrote:
> On 01/28/2012 01:13 PM, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
>> In https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1661 there's a
>> poll running which lists all kinds of important features of a
>> distribution. Unfortunately until today this poll has not received
>> enough attention to draw any reasonable and remarkable information
>> about the topic.
>>
> Hi All,
>
> I'm new here (a couple months) but I registered on the forum so I 
> could vote. However I agree with Antoine in that there are quite a few 
> more than 3 of those choices that are "deal breakers". My reasons for 
> coming to Mageia weren't listed specifically, so I thought this might 
> be an appropriate time and place to tell you why I use Mageia.
>
> I'm a longtime Linux user (Redhat 6.2 was my first boxed set, but I 
> tried a few before that). Over those years I've used a handful of 
> distros and demoed a dozen others. I started with Redhat, then SUSE, 
> Mandrake, openSUSE, Fedora, and now Mageia. That may sound like I'm 
> fickle or hard to please, but as someone who manages a number of 
> desktops and servers I assure you there were solid reasons for each 
> switch. I'm not going to go OT with all the gory details of each 
> change, but I can sum it up in a couple points that I hope are more 
> valuable to the community that my vote on the forum.
>
> First, why I leave a distro: This is easy to describe but probably 
> hard to accomplish. Regressions. When something that worked in the 
> last release stops working in this one, that's a problem. If it's 
> trivial to fix, then it's a small issue. If it takes days to fix or 
> can't be fixed at all it's a deal breaker.
>
> Second, why I chose a distro: This is also easy to describe, but much 
> harder to accomplish. It needs to install cleanly. Minor things like 
> changing a checkbox during installation are no big deal. A failed 
> install or a barebones desktop with no/poor configuration tools is a 
> big deal. Also, I don't use any unusual or poorly supported software, 
> so the software that I use must be in an official repo and easy to 
> install.
>
> Third, my humble suggestion: If I were to describe a dev/release 
> policy that was sure to make me happy it would be this:
>
> 1) Zero regression policy - I know this isn't possible, but I think it 
> should be the highest priority.
>
> 2) If there will be a known regression or deprecated feature, it 
> should be announced one release prior to being effective. This would 
> give users time to adjust, find other software, or find another distro 
> if need be.
>
> 3) Stable. With Linux I consider this a given, but it needs to be 
> listed so that it doesn't get ignored.
>
> 4) Keep the community friendly and vibrant. I listed this as one of my 
> 3 choices on the survey, not because it was a deal breaker, but 
> because I think it is the strongest feature of Mageia and it would be 
> truly unfortunate to lose it. This is the most respectful and friendly 
> online community I've come across and you should all be very proud of 
> what you've done in a short time. I wish my life were different and I 
> could contribute.
>
Well, 12 hours ago you did contribute! Thanks a lot for telling about 
your experiences and giving your opinion :)