Fedora Extras packaging beta software into production repos, why?

[Tim Jackson]

Josh Boyer wrote:

> That being said, my personal opinion is that "beta" or pre-release
> packages should only be done in the devel branch, and only if that beta
> has a really good chance of becoming an actual release before the devel
> branch is forked for the next Extras release.

This to me is the best argument for something *like* a "testing" repo 
I've seen. I've never been convinced about the whole "testing" thing to 
date, but I can see a limited use for some packages (especially big ones 
with long release cycles and beta/RC periods) where regular users might 
want to use the latest and greatest but it wouldn't be appropriate to 
put it into devel, which might of course become a release branch. In 
fact even if there's any doubt about whether the package might not be 
ready for the next release (e.g. close to FC7 branch) it makes it 
awkward for the maintainer because you they potentially have to revert 
devel (go backwards)and undo good work if it turned out the package 
wasn't quite ready in time for a branch, which isn't ideal.

It makes more sense in my head if you call "testing" something like 
"bleeding edge".

Tim