Jeff Spaleta wrote:
Then it still misses the need for a way to get current desktop programs
without wild and crazy changes in the kernel and device drivers.
Make up your mind.
It has been made up for some time now.
Do you care about uptime reliability for critical
services or do you care about desktop applications?
Yes! (This is not an either/or question, except in the way RH/fedora
bundle things).
Are you seriously
attempting to suggest that new versions of thunderbird or openoffice
are critical in any sense of the word?
I'm suggesting that the kernel of RHEL5/Centos5 is perfectly usable on
the machines where I have it installed and I will see no noticeable
benefit from the breakage that comes with fedora whereas I would see
substantial differences in up to date applications.
> Personally i think you are
just arguing to argue and are not actually attempting to have
reasonable discourse. I'll let others make their own judgements
concerning motivations based on your inability to stick to a line of
reasoning.
The kernel's job is to provide a stable hardware-independent interface.
It doesn't have to keep changing to do that, particularly on hardware
that doesn't change, although it does need security/bugfix updates. The
concepts of open()/read()/write()/ioctl() never change. Applications, on
the other hand, are always being improved.
You can not have your cake and eat it too.
Not with the artificial split between RHEL and fedora.
Upstream development in the
open source world is really fast right now...for the 'popular' stuff
that end-user see. There are not the resources to satisfy the people
who need long term operation for critical things with people who
desire to track closely with upstream in the application space in the
same installable 'distribution'. You have a choice to make.
I've pretty much given up on fedora except for a test box running FC6
and keeping an eye on what will be in RHEL6 and the corresponding
Centos. When the apps in Centos5 start looking too outdated, the choice
will be to either find a way to update them that doesn't impose too much
administrative overhead or find a distribution that doesn't make the
same split between system stability and application age.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
