long term support release

[Les Mikesell]

Horst H. von Brand wrote:

>> Here's the reason: you have a new computer with hardware supported in
>> fedora but not the current RHEL/Centos release -
> 
> Lack of care when buying a machine can't be cured by the distribution.

What do you mean 'lack of care'?  I buy hardware based on price and 
capability, then pick an OS that will run on it.  I can't afford to do 
it the other way around.

> 
>>                                                  or you need some
>> software feature provided in the newer fedora apps so you install
>> fedora.
> 
> I was perfectly happy with RH 6.2, and most of what I do now I could do
> there, so this can't really be an issue.

There were horrible problems in 6.2 - I find it hard to believe that 
anyone could have been happy with it.  If you had said 7.3 I might have 
gone along with this line.

>>          A year passes and you've installed an assortment of
>> additional apps and perhaps written some of your own.
> 
> Upgrade to next Fedora. Gets easier each time around. A bit of foresight
> when installing originally helps much here.

Sorry, been there, done that, and I'm not buying it.  Installing a new 
fedora version is entirely unpredictable.

>>                                                     Everything you
>> need is working nicely, but now your security updates end.  Your 'some
>> old code set' description doesn't quite match what people care about -
>> they want a code set that meets certain needs and once that is
>> installed and working they don't care if a prettier new version with
>> new bugs happens to be available.  But people will be installing that
>> on new computers or new situations where they need a feature.
> 
> If they care for "working indefinitely" they aren't into "mint-fresh
> hardware" nor into "bleeding-edge software". This scenario isn't at all
> realistic.

If you don't use any new hardware or features I don't think you qualify 
as an expert on realistic scenarios.  Pretty much every computer I've 
used has gone though exactly that evolutionary process where, when I 
first set it up I've got nothing to lose and don't mind experimenting 
with latest/greatest software.  Then as dependencies accumulate and I've 
got time and effort invested in a working system, I'm less and less 
inclined to use it for someone else's beta testing.

-- 
    Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com