Thoughts on FC and the future..

[Benjamin J. Weiss]

From: "William Hooper" <whooperhsd3 at earthlink.net>
> WipeOut said:
> > Since the release interval between releases as so short (FC1 -> FC2 =
> > 5Months) has any thought been given to maybe putting a structure in
> > place that would allow initial installs to  be performed by downloading
> > the major release ISO's and then from there simply have a rolling
> > upgrade meaning that as updates and upgrades happen the community can
> > simply use YUM or a similar app to stay current..
>
> This idea falls apart pretty quickly depending on what is being upgraded.
> Looking at the devel list, for example, Python is going to be upgraded in
> FC2.  Yum is based on Python, and Yum needed recompiled for the new
> version.  Now with an Anaconda based install who cares.  You aren't using
> the installed system for anything during the upgrade process.  However, if
> you are trying to use the Python tools to upgrade the system you are going
> to see major headaches.

So, if I am reading you correctly, Fedora Core users are going to have one
of four options from now on:

1) Re-install their servers from scratch, every 5-6 months.

2) Try to go it alone on an upgrade path that is not supported, and pray
that they can keep their server somewhat stable in some arcane way.

3) Stick with their current FC1 and try to keep up to date on all of the
security fixes themselves, since they won't be supported for but an
additional 2 months or so.

4) Forget about it and allow the bad guys to hack into their system when the
next big security hole is found.

Does that about sum it up?

As an addendum...is Redhat forcing Fedora Core into a too-rapid release
cycle in order to force people to purchase their RHEL offerings?  It sure
feels that way to me...

Ben