Preset freeze and release dates - was Re: Joey Hess is out?
On 09/11/2014, Sven Hartge <sven@svenhartge.de> wrote:
> Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
>
>> I would rather it be done right [release...], than be done by an
>> otherwise /not/ necessary arbitrary date for a freeze.
>
> I'd like to remind you that not having a pre-set freeze date didn't go
> so well in the past. Getting Sarge out for example took ages, because
> there was no communicated date set by the release team and the
> contributing DDs were in the dark as what to do until which date. Then
> the freeze came and lasted for over 1 year which made everybody angry
> and in the end, Sarge release with very outdated packages, because of
> the uncoordinated freeze peroid.
>
I think that, as a user rather than a developer, it is a matter of tradeoffs.
I do not know what version number was sarge, but, from memory,
regarding Debian Linux 3 and 3.1, people complained and joked about
the long time between releases, and how at that time, it was a "It
will happen when it happens, maybe in a year, maybe in two years" kind
of thing, but, those were what I would regard as the last stable
versions of Debian Linux. Since then, it seems to have gone the way of
MS Windows; "Release date is coming, so we will release it then, ready
or not", and so, each release since 3.1, has seemed to be simply a new
testing version.
With one new "stable" version, I lost gigabytes of data, when I tried
to move it from one system or HDD to another - it moved the directory
names, and deleted all of the files. Now, after that, I copy, then
check for completion of copying, before deleting, rather than moving.
As I have previously, repeatedly, mentioned, I have yet to get Debian
Linux 6 working properly - it is still unable to implement memory
swapping, and runs out of resources, before it implements swapping to
a reasonable degree. In Debian Linux 6, I was able to cheat it into
swapping, by opening and then closing one or two particular
applications - GIMP was one of them, that would, upon closing, force
swapping to occur, if it wasn't already ocurring, and was needed. That
semi-functionality disappeared with Debian 6. For me, Debian 6 has
lost the functionality of memory swapping.
Debian 7 lost GNOME 2 and its functionality, and, whilst I can get an
external monitor working with Debian Linux 6, I can't get it working
with Debian Linux 7.
However, whilst the process of making sure that the Debian Linux
version has reasonably stabilised, and, is ready for release, before
releasing it, resulted in the stability that had existed, by the time
that it was released, then, yes, some packages were outdated.
However, Ubuntu, which could be relied upon to have the latest
available versions of packages, was like a testing version of Debain
(and, not quite as good as Debian, apart from having more cutting edge
packages).
And then, we have the policies of the package developers, who
sometimes do not fix found bugs in versions of the packages that are
available for the "stable" version of Debian Linux, but, fix the bugs,
for the version of the package that will be made available for the
next "stable" release of Debian Linux. That is one of the reasons that
I gave up on Ekiga - problems were found, in trying to get it working,
but, we were advised that "the bugs have been found and dealt with,
and the fixes will be available for the version that will come with
the next release of Debian Linux; the next "stable" version of Debian
Linux, but not for the then current "stable" version of Debian Linux,
so no prospect of getting Ekiga working for the then "stable" version
of Debian Linux, existed. So, we simply had to give up on some of the
applications that came with Debian Linux, as the application
developers determined that no need existed, to have a working version
in the "stable" version of Debian Linux.
So, it is a matter of tradeoffs.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
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