Release naming ...
A while ago I posted my feelings on this to Debian private,
but it was _very_ ill received at the time. I'll restate it
now. Commercial products do not rename their OS every time
there's a bug fix! I suggested adopting a more commercial
approach to release naming for the reasons it is now being
done. I suggested only incrementing the revision number
(i.e. issuing a point release) when one of three criteria
were met:
1) The OS as a whole as been modified significantly, where
significantly is defined by the nature of a change in
functionality, as it impacts the user community. This may
be a bug fix that's fundamental in some way, such as a
major libc issue.
2) There is functionality necessarily introduced into the
release as its needed but can't wait until the next major
release. The Broadway upgrade qualifies as this, even
though that wasn't the reason it was done.
3) There are a (very) large number of _serious_ bug fixes
against the current release.
Unless one of these criteria is met, the release should
remain frozen, and un-incremented. Fixes should be
available (and easily identified) from public ftp servers,
and that should be that. Vendors are of course welcome to
sell CDs including the fixes, or even just containing them.
People who have the current release can then judge what they
feel they should upgrade based on their needs. Having
versions like 1.2.17 is very confusing to normal people (=
people who don't give a rat's ass what OS they're using.)
Its obvious that perspective buyers feel the same way, and
experienced marketers(sp?) know this. This is why they have made
these suggestions to us. What Bruce has done is a
compromise to this. The name will still identify a
"snapshot" of the stable release relative to a series of
"fixes" against a major release, it will just do it in a
less confusing manner.
Furthermore, "we" as in "the developers" made a decision to
organize our leadership into a group of trusted directors,
and an _elected_ president. In the past, the most
frustrating thing for me to read was when Bruce posted
things like "I can't lead where no one will follow" since
this is the definition of leadership (i.e. we don't need a
leader to take us where we're already going). Now that
Bruce is doing as we've asked, we're pissing and moaning
about it. Come on!
The fact is, in a few months, nobody is going to care about
this thread, but we'll all be quite happy about being
available at EggHead along side of Win98, etc. Bruce
has done the right thing, and inevitably, change has
consequence. The pains of this change are small and well
worth it.
I was one of the first people to question all of this on
this list because I didn't understand it. Since then, Bruce
(and others) have explained it in such explicit terms, I
find it hard to believe that anyone could still be getting
the wrong idea. The mechanics of how this new scheme will
be implemented may be a little fuzzy, but so what! I'm sure
that piece will become clear as it happens. The important
thing is understanding what's happenning and why. The how
part will become self evident. My original concern was the
the integrity of the system was potentially at risk (even if
not at first, down the road), but its clear this is not the
case.
As for CD sales, I don't see how increasing Debian's
popularity will decrease CD sales for anyone. The nature of
the sales will certainly change, but that's life. Things
change all the time. Deal with it. I've recieved some very
strange mail on this topic, and I am not at all interested
in doing marketing consulting for CD-R vendors. However,
whenever there is any kind of change, opportunity increases
geometrically. This is certainly not an exception to this
rule, but rather an example of it.
As for the lawyers in the crowd, you guys are out of
control! I always knew you guys were back yard sociologists
at heart ;) Paul Serice, if you're ever in Tokyo, lets
discuss politics, and beating people senseless, over a few
beverages ;)
Cheers,
--
"Until we extend the circle of our compassion to all living
things, we will not ourselves find peace" -Albert Schweitzer
Richard G. Roberto
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