> 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,
Thanks. It certainly clarifies a lot... and it broadens the current topic of discussion to include "what is it that people _expect_ out of a Fedora release?" The folks who are saying "Gee, maybe I should switch to CentOS" should probably do that, given Fedora's stated goal of a new major release every 6 months, and given the maintenance requirements of supporting older releases. --wpd
