yum flavors vs/ fc1, fc2, fc3...infinity

[Gordon Keehn]

William Hooper wrote:

>Gordon Keehn said:
>  
>
>>Somebody wrote:
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Again, I disagree.  Having installed FC2 test 2 through the final
>>>release there were a number of improvements.  The end result wasn't
>>>perfect, but it never will be.  There were also a large number of
>>>changes in FC2 vs. FC1.  I highly doubt this will always be the case
>>>(for example, FC3 doesn't appear to have anything drastically
>>>different).
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Then maybe FC 3 should be called FC 2.1.  I've always been more
>>comfortable with dot-1 releases anyhow.
>>    
>>
>
>How does calling it FC 3 vs FC 2.1 change anything?  Version numbers are just a convenient way to refer the group of packages.  I saw the same mentality when RHL 9 was announce when everyone assumed it would be RH 8.1.  Suddenly a person that thought RH 8.1 was going to be wonderful said RHL 9 would not be.
>
>It's going to be the third release of Fedora Core, so Fedora Core 3 is appropriate.
>
>--
>William Hooper
>
>  
>
    Once upon a time, a new version (dot-zero) signaled a major change 
of some sort, new kernel, or whatever.  Dot-one through whatever could 
be considered revisions (and hopefully, but not always, improvements) on 
the original theme.  RedHat broke that model with RH9, and Fedora has 
continued the downward trend.  Doing away with fractional versioning 
removes one indicator as to how much trouble a new distribution can be 
expected to cause.  Everyone EXPECTED RedHat 9 to be released as 8.1.  
When RedHat announced the new release was to be RedHat 9 many took that 
as an indication (false as it happened) that big doings were afoot. 
    Fedora Core 1 (had it been released as a RedHat distro) could have 
been called 9.1 for all the impact it had to most users.  Fedora Core 2 
definitely warranted a dot-zero version number.  Most of the problems 
were related to the new kernel, and were shared by other 2.6 based 
distros, but that made them no less disruptive.  Which brings us to Core 
3.  Whoopee!  The Fedora Project can call it anything their hearts 
desire;  it's their project.  I'm just nostalgic for the good old days 
when version numbers meant something.
    Cheers,
Gordon Keehn