Fedora 7: The Linux Knight in Shining Armor?

[Robin Laing]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> Robin Laing wrote:
> 
>> I can agree that a major change could be a real headache but if the 
>> changes are grouped, lets say the move to PATA as part of the kernel 
>> upgrade, then most applications can be updated at the same time.  Now, 
>> I remember doing a kde update that was massive so why not a change 
>> like that.  There is still the testing branch to work things out on.
> 
> Not many people are prepared to help out and provide feedback in 
> updates-testing. Have you on a regular basis? A KDE update is small 
> potatoes compared to other fundamental changes we are making with every 
> release. Some of them like in GCC or Glibc requires rebuilding every 
> single component in the distribution. If you want such massive changes 
> as updates within the same release, you might as well as be running the 
> Fedora development tree.

Now this is a way I never thought of.  I do remember issues with 
changing gcc in the past and maybe there is a way to have a 
compatibility package to ensure older applications keep working.  There 
was a *compat package in the past to do this.

> 
>> Is the present system a deal breaker for Fedora?  With the loss of
>> legacy support for older versions, it is looking more and more that it 
>> could be.
> 
> I don't consider it a deal breaker but a rolling release model with 
> major changes now and then is just too problematic if you want a 
> somewhat robust release. A slightly longer updates cycle might have been 
> better as I said elsewhere before. Fedora updates lifetime has increased 
> updates lifecyle to two releases. That means previously FC4 received 
> main updates till FC6 test 2 was released. Now when F7 is released, it 
> would get updates until F9 is releases which is from about 9 months to 
> about 13 months. That gives you the ability to completely skip one 
> release. If you want a longer lifecycle, you are free to get involved 
> and help.
> 
> Rahul

I hope to help more when I have time.  I do download some test packages 
and I report any bugs that I find.  One is the change on the USB "safe 
to remove" message that is in FC6 after trashing the file system on my 
USB stick.

I also want to start running the next version as a test mode.  I am in 
the process of setting up my home computer for this purpose with an 
interchangeable HD.  I do have to be careful as I also have to keep it 
running with many applications for all the things I do and want to do on 
it.  Many that are not supplied by Core or extras.  I wish I could 
afford a third and forth computer. :)

I wish I could do more.

-- 
Robin Laing