[Mageia-dev] Release cycles proposals, and discussion

[Ahmad Samir]

On 14 June 2011 09:25, Thorsten van Lil <tvl83 at gmx.de> wrote:
[...]
>
> Backports aren't supposed to be for the averaged user

I've seen this argument more than once in this thread. Why isn't
backports suitable for the average user? that same average user would
install an RPM package from a 3rd party repo or the official web site
of an application in a heartbeat to get a new version of "foo".

The "backports isn't supported" argument means that if backporting a
new package requires a lot of changes then it won't be done, e.g. a
new version of vlc/wine/foo isn't a problem, and if something goes
wrong with the package after a while another backport will be done "if
it's not too much hassle" (e.g. vlc requires a newer ffmpeg to make
some video codec work better but that new ffmpeg is known to break
some other apps then it won't be done).

Packagers don't backport packages they know won't work or are crashy....

> and shouldn't be used
> to bring the half of your system up to date.

The word "stable release" implies "doesn't change much"; so a new
version of vlc or wine isn't a problem, but don't put "updating to
GNOME3 or KDE 4.8 in Mageia 1" and "stable" in the same sentence, they
don't fit..... such _huge_ changes need to happen in a development
release so that the niggles (which are bound to show up) can be ironed
out so that the distro becomes "stable" and ready to be released
(Mageia 2).

[...]

-- 
Ahmad Samir