Re: testing and no release schedule
On 26-Mar-04, 14:07 (CST), "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@galactic.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> No, and I could care less about them. If our releases are being delayed
> because we're spending too much time supporting dead platforms, we should
> drop support for them in our releases, or at least support them as secondary
> platforms which are released after the primary platforms.
The world has plenty of x86 only Linux distributions. One of the values
of Debian is that it supports a wide variety of systems. That means
someone can run the same distribution on all the machines under their
purview.
> The fact that Debian is a volunteer organization has nothing to do
> with the fact that we release slowly. I wish people would stop using
> this red herring argument. We probably have more manpower than the
> development teams of the 3 largest Linux distributors put together.
> The problem, as in most large, ineffective organizations, is in
> management.
What management? That's exactly the point: Because Debian is a volunteer
organization (or rather, because it's an unstructured volunteer
organization), you can't tell people what to do. If more people were
interested in making releases, then they'd happen faster. Most people in
Debian are interested in maintaining a few packages.
When you "sign up" to hack the Linux Kernel, or GNOME, or Python, or X,
there's a very clear authority structure. Our authority structure is
"everybody is equivalent." That's what the constitution says. There are
some de-factor chokepoint positions, such the FTP masters and Release
master, but anytime they try to actually do something, there's a lot of
bitching and moaning about how they're not doing their job right and how
we need to overthrow the cabal. I'm amazed that they continue to put up
with it; I sure as hell would have given up a long time ago.
And every six months or so, someone comes in to say how we could make
faster releases is only we did X, Y, and Z. Well, here's the thing:
there's nothing to keep you from taking the packages, picking the ones
you want, and making your own release. Since the problems not manpower,
but only organization, this shouldn't be such a big deal, eh?
Steve
--
Steve Greenland
The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the
world. -- seen on the net
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