Jim Pazarena wrote: > what possessed the debian people to tack names on to the OS? It isn't just Debian. Most of the software distributions use names for their releases *in addition to* the version numbering just like Debian does. Debian isn't unique here. Just like car companies name their car models too. People tend to relate better to things with names than to numbers. Additionally in Debian the release number doesn't really figure into package upgrades. It doesn't matter that Lenny is 5 and Squeeze is 6 because the upgrade happens at the package level and every package has its own version number. The number of the release is relatively insignificant. The developers have tried different release patterns in the past. They keep discussing new patterns for the future on debian-devel. But so far no one has really come up with a perfect release process. > having actual version/release numbers seems so much clearer. > And there does appear to BE release numbers. So why promote the > goofy naming system which throws the novice? In my experience it is the opposite. Novices get lost with all of the numbers, numbers, numbers but relate better to named things. Bob
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