Re: the problems with Debian
>>"David" == David Bristel <targon@targonia.com> writes:
David> Going from what I saw with the Potato development, we have
David> major "base" packages that get updated multiple times, while
David> at the same time, other packages that rely on these base
David> packages are also being developed.
So far, as an actual developer, I have not experienced any
real problems with my packages because of the so called base package
changes. Nor do I recall wholesale bitching about an unstable base
set (well, perl upgrade caused a little bit of discussion, but that's
all I recall offhand).
David> For every change to the version of libc, almost every package
David> needs to be checked, and recompiled against the new version.
In actual practice, we maintain backward compatibility run
time packages all the way back to libc4 (at least, on my machine I
have libc4, and an actual program that uses it and still runs)
This is not mere conjecture. Go back into the BTS and look at
the RC bugs. Look at how seldom the RC bug was due to an incompatible
change in a ``base'' package.
Unless you can some up with more basis for this base packages
cause RC bugs and hence delays scenario, preferably with references
to actual bugs and problems, you are not going to find very many
people getting stirred up about this.
Incidentally, the package pools solution shall address all
this as well, so this is all very moot.
David> It would make sense based on this, that if the core components
David> that the rest of the OS on are "frozen" before the rest of the
David> development begins, it would lead to shorter development
David> cycles.
I beg to differ. I would think that before all the mini layerd
cycles were done, the best part of a decade would float by us. Given
that the observed dependency does not seem as dire as you suggest, I
think that is not the cause of the loing release cycles. (the RC bugs
had very little to do with base package caused problems)
David> How many of you remember sendmail breaking several
David> times because of library updates?
On a release?
manoj
--
backups: always in season, never out of style.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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