Re: Fedora lifetime and stability

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On Thursday 08 November 2007, John Summerfield wrote:
> Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> > Serguei Miridonov wrote:
> >> However, before starting a discussion about this I would
> >> like to ask, if this topic was discussed earlier.
>
> To death.
>
> I'm sure it was
>
> >> but can somebody point me any deep analysis which really
> >> proves that current one year lifetime and half-year
> >> release period is the best for Fedora?
> >
> > Here is a section of a post on Fedora Philosophy:
> >
> > The Fedora project does not pretend to be *production
> > server* centric. It does not even pretend to be
> > *production server* friendly. The personality of the 
> > Fedora project is fast paced, (b)leading edge, leaving the
> > past behind quickly. It is a great proving ground or test
> > bed for current technologies. It is fun. It will never
> > have the stability or extended support that a server class
> > distribution does.
>
> Translated, "rolling beta." In return for your access to the
> latest technology, you can expect cuts and bruises.

Then don't name "rolling beta" as stable because it is 
missleading.

> If you want a longer life, go look at other solutions.

Look, I'm running Linux since 1994 starting with Slackware then 
switched to Red Hat and Fedora. I have Linux on both home 
computer and in my office. I always liked the fact that with 
every new release the system became more and more stable and 
usefull. That was before F7. Upgrading from FC5 to F7 wasn't 
disaster, of course, but this was just because of my knowledge 
of the system - using Linux more than 12 years makes 
difference. USB drives did not mount, no problem, we'll do it 
manually. Kernel did not park heads before switching power of 
laptop off, well, modern drives use their kinetic energy to 
remove heads. I could imagine the perception of inexperienced 
user who for some reason decides to try Fedora as his first 
(and last?) Linux distribution.

In July-August most F7 problems were resolved (for my system, 
at least). The normal life has just started, but now F7 has 
only 6-7 months to live? This is what makes me just rise my 
hand and ask.

My remarks are not to offense developers and maintainers. I 
myself was a maintainer of a kernel driver and I know what it 
cost to keep things alive. I started this thread having just 
one thought in mind - improving Fedora, at least, to return 
the stability that Red Hat and Fedora had in the past. This is 
why I suggest to have one release an year, allow more time for 
testing before the release and extend the lifetime at least 
for two years.

If someone wants new and cool bleading edge software, there is 
always a testing version of Fedora, so long term lifetime 
isn't a problem. Even some newest packages can be backported 
to current test updates.

Actually, I'm not going to continue this discussion. I wanted 
just to share my thoughts. I know that I'm not alone. For 
example, here 
http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/blog/2007/03/where_fedora_went_wrong.html 
is also said enough, on both sides. And my opinion is that 
Fedora will only win if testing period and release lifetime 
will be at least twice longer.

Best regards,
Serguei.


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