Weblog entry #16 for simonw
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#16
Release early, release often....
Posted by simonw on Mon 5 Dec 2005 at 18:41
It was asked earlier here what we want from Debian in future.
Today I decided I want faster releases.
Saw a comment about Etch arriving in the "spring" (I believe December 2006 is planned, so goodness knows where "spring" came from).
There is way more change between stable and the current unstable, than Microsoft might do in three years of OS/Desktop software development.
Meanwhile Debian is bleeding desktop users to Ubuntu, in part because they do faster releases, even if they have a lot less software around in their repositories, because they have the latest GNOME, and OpenOffice and other core applications, and (admittedly) a lot of desktop polish (even if they have more bugs), people will switch. Running unstable on a desktop, or even testing, is not fun, and certainly isn't plausible for a commercial GNU/Linux desktop.
Okay I might only want this for desktop users, I'm not sure. But even in the server space there are things like mod_perl (1.999.21) that are dating quickly in Sarge, and vast amounts of stuff (like PHP5, Catalyst, and other Perl packages) waiting to be let loose on the worlds Debian webservers. Reality is that many Debian users are using this stuff one way or the other, it would scratch my itch better to have it in stable.
Once a year would be just about okay, but on past experience if we want Etch out soon the process should already have started, and I'm thinking even yearly is looking a tad slow these days.
I almost installed my work desktop as Ubuntu this morning, but in the end just nicked the XF86Config-4 file from an "old" Ubuntu LiveCD boot, and the main reason I didn't is I wanted a desktop compatible with my Debian servers.
Conclusion - Knoppix rules.
Of course the question is how, but I don't have to answer that one just yet.
Today I decided I want faster releases.
Saw a comment about Etch arriving in the "spring" (I believe December 2006 is planned, so goodness knows where "spring" came from).
There is way more change between stable and the current unstable, than Microsoft might do in three years of OS/Desktop software development.
Meanwhile Debian is bleeding desktop users to Ubuntu, in part because they do faster releases, even if they have a lot less software around in their repositories, because they have the latest GNOME, and OpenOffice and other core applications, and (admittedly) a lot of desktop polish (even if they have more bugs), people will switch. Running unstable on a desktop, or even testing, is not fun, and certainly isn't plausible for a commercial GNU/Linux desktop.
Okay I might only want this for desktop users, I'm not sure. But even in the server space there are things like mod_perl (1.999.21) that are dating quickly in Sarge, and vast amounts of stuff (like PHP5, Catalyst, and other Perl packages) waiting to be let loose on the worlds Debian webservers. Reality is that many Debian users are using this stuff one way or the other, it would scratch my itch better to have it in stable.
Once a year would be just about okay, but on past experience if we want Etch out soon the process should already have started, and I'm thinking even yearly is looking a tad slow these days.
I almost installed my work desktop as Ubuntu this morning, but in the end just nicked the XF86Config-4 file from an "old" Ubuntu LiveCD boot, and the main reason I didn't is I wanted a desktop compatible with my Debian servers.
Conclusion - Knoppix rules.
Of course the question is how, but I don't have to answer that one just yet.
Comments on this Entry
Posted by Anonymous (213.164.xx.xx) on Tue 6 Dec 2005 at 12:55
Debian should be server.
Ubuntu should be desktop.
Ubuntu should be desktop.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (195.23.xx.xx) on Tue 6 Dec 2005 at 18:31
Even for my desktop, I want stability, which Ubuntu can't give to me. I don't need the latest KDE, sarge's one fits well. I don't need the "latest" anything, but of course I like it. But I need stability, so I choose Debian. Yes, having newer stuff is cool, and a quickier release schedule would be great, but that only can be achieved with more people working on Debian, not change the way stuff is done. And etch work is running wildly: there's already a beta since almost one month...
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (213.164.xx.xx) on Wed 7 Dec 2005 at 08:11
> not change the way stuff is done
Well I won't be running Debian on servers if they release yearly. That'd be too expensive.
Well I won't be running Debian on servers if they release yearly. That'd be too expensive.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]