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

[Fernando Parra]

On Tue, 5 Oct 2010 15:47:20 +0200
Ahmad Samir <ahmadsamir3891-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> On 5 October 2010 15:28, Tux99 <tux99-mga-ju+53DPtYRFAfugRpC6u6w at public.gmane.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.

Please don't write words in my name, I never wrote something like that, security and stability are as important to as for an any other user, but I need the latest version of some programs, without upgrade all the distro every 6 months.

> 
> > I do agree that Mageia should be a semi-rolling distro.
> >
> > By "semi rolling distro" I mean the following:
> >
> > Release a distro every 8-12 months (the exact cyle is not the point I'm
> > debating here, it could be 6 months too, it doesn't mater for the concept
> > I'm trying to explain).
> >
> > Provide updates/security patches for all the basic stuff that has a lot of
> > dependencies (kernel, core libs, kde, gnome, xorg, etc.).
> >
> > Provide newer release rather than backported security patches for all other
> > apps.
> >
> > In other words, backports (rather than backported security fixes) should be
> > the rule for everything apart from the core system stuff that has loads of
> > dependencies.
> >
> > This would reduce the space requirements on the mirrors and it would mean
> > that Mageia is a "rolling distro" for most apps, making it more attractive
> > compared to ubuntu/Fedora/opensuse and at the same time reduce the workload
> > for packagers.
> >
> >
> 
> 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?
> 
> -- 
> Ahmad Samir
> 

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