Patrick Doyle wrote:
> I keep wanting to ask this question, but I'm not quite sure how to
> phrase it, so here goes...
>
> What is the purpose of releasing different versions of Fedora (Core,
> or whatever it is called going forward)?
When a developer imports a shiny new program into Fedora, or a shiny new
version of an existing program, that program is going to have bugs.
Sometimes it means that users will have to do things different ways.
The developer can find many obvious bugs for himself, but other people
are going to use the package in other ways on equipment he doesn't own,
and they are likely to find other bugs.
So there's the Fedora development tree, which people use on computers
when they don't mind too much if they have to reinstall every so often.
They use the computers much as they normally would, or run test-suites,
or do whatever, find bugs, and report them. And if they don't like new
features, they at least get to say so.
For example, the current development tree contains a kernel which
handles parallel IDE drives the same way as serial ATA (SATA) is
handled. This means that what was /dev/hda is now /dev/sda (or sdb, or
whatever). This will break a number of setups, and mean that some people
have to change their configuration files (usually the files they changed
themselves). But it does promise better support in the future. Dave
Jones, the maintainer, says he won't release this version for FC6 (or
FC5), because it would break too many existing setups. But for FC7,
people will expect to have to reconfigure a few things, and there may be
support in the FC installer for "obvious" settings to be transferred to
the new naming.
> Perhaps a different way to state the same question is: What do I get
> by upgrading from FC5 to FC6 (to F7, F8, etc..) that I don't get by
> simply running "yum update"?
Well, you'll get very few of the new programs doing things in different
ways, and very often you'll be limited as to which new programs are
available. You won't get major updates.
> Or, trying the question one more way: When I run "yum update", as I do
> semi-sporadically, why do many packages on my FC5 box get updated so
> regularly -- they can't all be security updates (can they?)
Some are, some aren't. If a new version of a program comes out, and it's
not a major update from what was shipped, and it fixes non-security bugs
or adds new features, and it's not going to affect a number of other
programs, then it will probably be updated during a Fedora release. If
it involves rewriting configuration files, or dumping and reloading
databases, or changing the way things work, or doing a mass rebuild of a
lot of other files, then the Fedora developers will probably put it into
the development tree for the next version of Fedora (or the one after
that, if there's a version about to be released).
In general, "major updates are for new releases".
Hope this helps,
James.
--
E-mail: james@ | Has anybody ever considered that rats may just be the
aprilcottage.co.uk | most hypochondriac mammal on earth?
| -- Geoff Lane
