On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 07:09:01AM -0500, Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis wrote: > On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 01:19:25PM +0200, Sander Smeenk wrote: > > The same happened with one of my packages: snort. There was a /really/ > > old release in stable, because new uploads didn't make it in time. There > > were a couple of reasons why it would be good to have a new upstream > > version of the snort package installed in stable. But the Debian Policy > > forbids it. > > This is another example, that i like: who would ever use an old IDS? After reading "Future releases of Debian" and all other ideas (backporting etc.), another idea: Why not break up the one monolithic[1] Debian into parts? We could begin with separating it into "base" and "not base" where base corresponds more or less with the base system and not base corresponds with all other things (apps). As base is quite small, it could be released more frequently. The not base part could evolve independent from the base part. The not base part could be split further into parts. These parts could be things related to mailservers, things related to webservers, database servers, IDS, end-user workstations, ... Because each of these not base parts are smaller, they too can be released more frequently. In fact, this comes down to creating several Debian subprojects[2]: one for the base part (kernel, common infrastructure, ...) and several others for the not base parts. This would also mean that each of these subprojects can use a certain released version of the base part as basis i.e. some subprojects could evolve faster than others e.g. "Debian-workstation" could be based on Debian-base version 1 while "Debian-mailserver" could be based on Debian-base version 2. Ideally, it could also mean that several subprojects could be combined (e.g. when they depend on the same base) in one installation. This would certainly mean lots of work, especially regarding handling bugs, upgrades, security fixes, ... (as each of the subprojects would have their own responsibility), but, complexity can only be resolved by other complexity. [1] Debian's pro's are also becoming contra's: one single source for all packages combined into one well tested whole is good, but not that flexible, who's using all these packages on one single machine?, ... [2] I don't know if they should be subprojects or what is sometimes called "distro's based on the Debian meta-distro". There are probably lots of comments on this, but I just wanted to get this out of my head. cu, -- lenaerts.frank@pandora.be gpg fingerprint: A41E A399 5160 BAB9 AEF1 58F2 B92A F4AB 9FFB 3707 gpg key id: 9FFB3707 Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly." -- Henry Spencer
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