Dropping testing (was: Re: Bits (Nybbles?) from the Vancouver release team meeting)
On Wednesday 16 March 2005 18:12, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> I already sent two mails [1,2] where I expressed my opinion that dumping
> testing might be an option since it's the main reason for the underlying
> problems that seem to cause the proposed removal of two third of the
> Debian architectures from the Debian releases while it hasn't proven to
> bring any real benefits for the release.
>
> The interesting thing is that while people answered to other parts of
> these emails, noone said anything about my points regarding testing -
> neither in favor nor against them.
You fail to list and address the points testing claims to address.
Therefore I judge this part of your otherwise quite sensible mail ranting I
don't have to argue for or against because it has no real content except
expressing your personal animosities.
Ouch. Seems like I fell into the communication trap myself. Here is a weak try
at refuting your proposal:
To archive a stable release, arches have to be in sync, there should be only a
single version of every library and packages have to be installable. This
seem to be the problems I believe testing was designed to solve. Incidentally
this almost the list of "problems" you identify being the cause of testings
problems. Kinda matches. Going back to a frozen-only release cycle would
ignore these problems until half a year before the release. Then the same
work that is now done for testing would have to be done anyways: arches
brought to sync, libraries transitioned and package installability
guaranteed.
Thus I make two observations:
1) Only dropping testing would increase the risk (by delaying the detection of
the problems) without noticeable reductions in amount of work (if Debian
still aims at a 12-18 month release cycle)
2) Providing a better alternative is more efficiently done by those
dissatisfied with the status-quo (i.e. you) as opposed to those who worked
hard to establish the status-quo as solution to their problems (i.e.
ftp-master and release team).
Thank you for still caring about Debian!
Regards, David
--
- hallo... wie gehts heute?
- *hust* gut *rotz* *keuch*
- gott sei dank kommunizieren wir über ein septisches medium ;)
-- Matthias Leeb, Uni f. angewandte Kunst, 2005-02-15
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