Technology news and Jobs 
linux.conf.au Why Debian release schedules don't matter
linux.conf.au Why Debian release schedules don't matter | Why Debian release schedules don't matter |
|
| by Sam Varghese | |
| Friday, 06 February 2009 | |
|
Page 2 of 2 Lenny, the next Debian release is due out sometime this month. An arbitrary 18-month period was set for its release after Etch. Debates over some aspects of the software to be included prevented developers from releasing thus far. (A note to the developers: that installer on the second release candidate kicks butt!) Featured Whitepaper
5 Best Practices for Smartphone Support
Most of those who actually use Debian rarely bother with hysteria over delayed releases. It is of little importance - everyone and his dog is using the testing distribution on their workstations. The stable release is something one uses on servers. And unless one is looking for a particular feature or some new software, one doesn't bother about servers, One just installs the security updates and life goes on. Of course, there may be some among this class of complainants who are looking to play TuxRacer on their servers. For such folk, releases do matter. The luxury of having three separate streams of development from which to pick your operating system - nobody offers that - goes unnoticed. And which distribution supports so many architectures? Oops, sorry, Windows provides you with six or seven options but it's got nothing to do with the bleeding edge nature of the software that is included or the architectures either. I believe it's got something to do with marketing. I could be wrong. Debian allows one the luxury of upgrading from version to version without having to change machines or reinstall. This is something that even the biggest software company on the planet, with its hundreds of thousands of employees, cannot do - when Windows 7 emerges from the portals of Redmond, everyone who wants to switch will have to back up, reinstall and then copy back all your own data. Most Linux distributions can't handle this kind of upgrade either. Those who whinge about Debian release schedules should take their next holiday in India - or better still in the south Indian state of Kerala, the area with the highest literacy rate in that country. After watching democracy in action and the insane way things work despite everything looking like it will collapse, one may gain some understanding of how a project like Debian runs. But for serial complainants, I fear that this will be a waste of time. And money. Much better to use that money to invest in a copy of Windows. Then you will have excellent reasons to bitch about release schedules - and you'd be justified in doing so too, since you aren't getting it free. |
Tags
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
