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

[Renaud MICHEL]

Hello
On samedi 16 octobre 2010 at 05:00, Fernando Parra wrote :
> > On Friday, 15 October 2010 03:48:56 Fernando Parra wrote:
> > So, we must "dumb down" everything, and not provide openldap backports
> > for people running servers who want a convenient way to run the
> > software version that will allow them to file bugs upstream (OpenLDAP
> > team doesn't respond to bugs filed on non-current releases)?
> 
> Specially here the answer is obvious: The novice doesn't now what is
> OpenLDAP! and maybe he wont hear about it for the rest of his life. New
> versions of OpenLDAP should be stay available in the backports
> repository, not as an automatic available upgrade.

Well, for example like OpenLDAP it is not a problem, because only users that 
need it will install it, and those that might need it are most likely aware 
what it implies to upgrade it to a newer version. So it will not bother 
other users if it is in backports or even updates, because as they won't 
have it installed, they won't be proposed to update.

It is more of a concern for things like cups or dbus, which most users will 
use without knowing it, and won't know how to fix if it breaks (not even 
knowing which package actually broke).

> > What do we do in the case where a new version of some software is
> > available, and has been sent to cooker? How do we decide whether it
> > should go to backports or not? And for which releases?
> > 
> > (FYI, for Mandriva users can typically request backports in bugzilla or
> > on IRC, but we may need better means).
> 
> Ok, first at all, we must deicide what packages (not all of them!) will
> be at the Rolling Ligth model. After that, all this packages must have
> an appropriate path.

I don't understand what you mean by "appropriate path".

I think we should not decide before hand what packages will be backported, 
we should maybe have a (short) list of packages that must not be backported 
(like glibc) and then have backports either when contributors are willing to 
make (and test) them, or on request.

Maybe we could also have a (short also) list of packages that we should 
really try (the packaging team could decide to dedicate some of his 
resources to that) to backport to the latest stable release, and maybe the 
previous latest.
Such packages would be for example firefox or OOo, packages that we know are 
used by many (most) users, and many users are likely to want a newer 
version.

> Anyway, after decide what packages will be in the Rolling Light, The OS
> must be gentle with the user and show a Window with a Message like that:
> 
> There are available a new version of Firefox(as an example). Do you want
> to install it? NO,   Maybe Later,   Show me more information,    Yes

A little OT, but:

Dialog windows should (almost) never have yes/no or ok/cancel choices, 
because when an user see a yes/ok choice, he generally interpret it as "yes, 
I want to keep on doing what I was doing". (and I know I have done it some 
times myself)

In your example, the No/yes should be labelled something like "keep current 
version" and "install new version".


cheers
-- 
Renaud Michel