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

[Buchan Milne]

On Tuesday, 5 October 2010 14:56:21 Tux99 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.
> 
> 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.

So, you don't want a rolling release, just a different security updates policy?

> 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.

In many cases, this depends on the complexity of the fix. In many cases, the 
security fix is trivial, but other changes that have ocurred in between are 
significant and require much wider testing.

So, this *will* vary from package to package. But, this has nothing to do with 
the system of creating and deploying updates, rolling releases, whether users 
are forced to upgrade everything whether they neeeded it or not. It is merely 
a policy decision, which is up to the security team.

> 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.

Name one rolling release that is suitable to a large community of non-expert 
users.

Anyway, the rate-of-change in non-rolling distros which have high update rate 
(e.g. Fedora) is unacceptable, real rolling distros are a usability nightmare 
IMHO.

Regards,
Buchan