Red Hat Launches New Package Repository for Enterprise Linux

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 2007-07-30 at 21:01 -0500, Gian Paolo Mureddu wrote:
> Though from the discussion you two are having, it may seem as if this is 
> going to be an "at your own risk" sort of thing for RHEL users. I 
> certainly hope it will not be that way.

There is a huge difference between a "7 year RHEL maintained
package" (with full SLA option) and a "Fedora package maintainer."

I have no problem with EPEL as an offering.  But I don't see it going
into RHEL as "stock" -- especially not at the "update" level.  As I
hinted before, the last thing I'd want to do deal with if I was a Red
Hat consultant is a failed update due to a deprecated/unmaintained EPEL
package.

> Make EPEL move as slowly as RHEL and to test each package as thoroughly
> as they test each RHEL release,

Then at what point do RHEL maintainers just take over the package?
Unless I'm mistaken, it's hard for Red Hat to rely on Fedora maintainers
when it comes to RHEL.

I know there are many inside of Red Hat that _do_ wear _both_ hats.  But
while virtually any RHEL package is in Fedora, it's _not_ the other way
around -- very not so!  ;)

I don't see how EPEL can be anything but an augment, not a standard,
part of RHEL.  I honestly don't.  CentOS, different story.  But as far
as RHEL, I don't see it.
 
> just bring the myriad of awesome packages that live in the repos to RHEL 
> users. I'd venture to guess that this would be a good thing for 
> corporate desktop users, and even those few who choose to user RHEL for 
> their home systems.

Then you don't understand the focus of RHEL -- at least as I've come to
know it.  RHEL's focus is _not_ the same as CentOS, despite CentOS being
built from RHEL.

That is the _key_ to understanding my point.  ;->

RHEL is _not_ about package availability.  It's about guaranteed ABI/API
compatibility, integration testing, regression mitigation, etc..., with
optional SLAs, for 7 years.

But I'm just an outsider, and don't speak for anyone but myself and my
exposure.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith         Professional, Technical Annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org   http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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