Re: Backports is better than Ubuntu because it fixes the right problem

[Thomas Walter <t.walter@nefkom.net>]

On Sun, 2006-02-12 at 16:23, Ben Vinger wrote:
> By watching the behaviour of Distro developers, you
> would think the day a distro version is released is
> the day it dies. 
> >From then onwards, only  the next version counts.
> 
> >From the viewpoint  of the user, the distro's life
> starts on the day it is released.   
> That is why there is such a big disconnect between
> Distro developers and users.  
> If a user wants the next version of package X, the
> distro developers are generally not interested in
> providing that.  They expect the user to:
> 1.) install the (at first) horribly unstable next
> version of the distro, preferably supplying them with
> encouragement and praises along the way.
> 2.) failing that, wait for the next version.
> 
> This is where Ubuntu seemed to come to the rescue - at
> least its next version is never that far away.   
> 
> But Ubuntu is not solving the real problem directly,
> which is the developers abandoning a distro on its
> release day (apart from security updates).   
> 
> That is why I appreciated Backports so much - you are
> fixing the right problem.
> 
> Thanks guys - especially Daniel Bauman for KDE 3.5,
> and Martin Pitt for PostgreSql 8.1
> Ben
> 

>From my point of view, the keys here are to have separation between the
base system and the application system.
Then one can update the applications more often to get fixes and
improvements.
Both can be achieved with Backports or Ubuntu.
For both the source is Debian Testing and Unstable as far as I know.

Thomas