[K12OSN] K12LTSP 4.2.4EL planning... how stable?

[Eric Harrison]

CentOS 4.4 has been released & I've started work on K12LTSP 4.2.4EL.

The question is how stable should the stable branch be?


There are a half-dozen end-user applications that can be updated. These
would be essentially back-ports from FC5 (K12LTSP 5.0). Does anyone
using K12LTSP 4.2EL have concerns about bumping up to the
latest-and-greatest of any of these packages?


Package Name   K12LTSP 4.2.3EL version  Latest version
------------  ------------------------  ---------------------------
blender       2.37-2.k12ltsp.4.2.2EL    2.42-6.fc5
celestia      1.3.2-3.k12ltsp.4.2.2EL   1.4.1-5.fc5
childsplay    0.81.1-2.k12ltsp.4.2.2EL  0.83-1.fc5
DansGuardian  2.7.6-7.k12ltsp.0.4.0     2.9.7.1-0.k12ltsp.0.5.0.0
gcompris      7.1.1-4.k12ltsp.4.2.2EL   7.4-13.fc5
inkscape      0.43-1.k12ltsp.4.2.2EL    0.44-4.fc5
tuxmath       0.2001.9.7-0103           0.2005.10.11-0



The real big question is whether or not to switch from LTSP 4.1 to LTSP
4.2? This is not an insignificant change, considering that the kernel
for the terminals is changed from a 2.4 kernel to a 2.6 kernel.

Considering that a "stable" branch should favor stability over shiny new
features, I am currently leaning towards leaving K12LTSP 4.2.4EL with
the older LTSP 4.1 packages. This is largely a question with upgrades,
so I'd like to hear from those of you currently running K12LTSP 4.2.3EL.
Are the new features in LTSP 4.2 (largely improved USB/CD/floppy
support) worth the risk of potentially breaking some of your terminals?


-Eric