SUMware
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join:2002-05-21
| openSUSE Moves To 8 Month Release Cycle
From Ars Technica
March 6, 2009 - quote:
The openSUSE community has published the roadmap for the 11.2 release and unveiled the schedule for the next several releases, all the way out to 2011. The distro will be shifting towards a fixed time-based eight-month release cycle.
Ubuntu and Fedora have both converged on six-month release cycles that are loosely pinned to the GNOME development schedule. The openSUSE developers have rejected this approach and selected an eight-month cycle instead because they don't believe that six months provides an adequate time window for building a quality distribution.
The new schedule was proposed in a message posted to the openSUSE mailing list by release manager Stephan Kulow.
OpenSUSE 11.2, which is codenamed Fichte, is planned for November 2009. It will include GNOME 2.28, KDE 4.3, a Web-based management interface for the YaST configuration system, improved support for Netbook hardware, and could potentially use Ext4 as the default filesystem. Subsequent releases will take place in July 2010, March 2011, and November 2011. Previous releases have generally been made at intervals of roughly 8 to 10 months, but a fixed cycle has never previously been enforced.
A strong commitment to a predetermined consistent release schedule makes it much easier for third-party developers and end-users to properly plan for releases. It also diminishes the risk of never-ending Duke Nukem Forever development cycles. The downside is that the pressure to ship on time can degrade release quality and also cause a distro to miss critical versions of important software components that are released too late for inclusion. The key is to be able to work within a schedule but make allowances for deviations where it is necessary and warranted.
The new openSUSE release strategy appears more structured than the previous approach, but still not as uncompromising as Ubuntu's rigid schedule commitment.
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donoreo
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join:2002-05-30
North York, ON
| It is nice to know when the next release is coming, but I hope they do not rush things to make a release date rather than fixing something broken.
The 8 month cycle causes another problem. Gnome and KDE are doing 6 month releases and this means at some point they will miss a new release that will be just a month or so away.
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SUMware
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join:2002-05-21
| More dev time hopefully minimizes quality issues. My impression is that this schedule is not absolutely cast in cement.
said by donoreo  :The 8 month cycle causes another problem. Gnome and KDE are doing 6 month releases and this means at some point they will miss a new release that will be just a month or so away. C'est la vie. Manual update via repos. |
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leibold
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-09
Sunnyvale, CA
clubs: 
| reply to donoreo
I expect that they will continue to do what they have always done in those situations: include both the latest stable release and a beta/rc of the upcoming release on the DVD.
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joako
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join:2000-09-07
/dev/null | Yep. The KDE betas were included with the last two releases.
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happylurk
@look.ca | reply to SUMware
Personally I like a longer release cycle. I wouldn't even mind a 12 month release cycle.
IMHO that would give us all some much needed breathing room between upgrades. |
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leibold
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-09
Sunnyvale, CA
clubs:
| If you like stable software and infrequent release cycles then you might want to look at the distributions for large businesses such as SuSE Linux Enterprise, RedHat Enterprise Linux or CentOS.
The reason for the much more frequent updates in consumer distributions of Linux is that this class of users tends to demand support for the latest and greatest in hardware, peripherals, multimedia, eye candy and whatever.
Personally I don't see the switch from 6 to 8 month as such a big deal. However I don't know how many OpenSuSE users are choosing the free downloads and how many buy the release package. Increasing the length of the release cycle should reduce the revenue stream from selling the DVD package. If that is a significant source of funding for the OpenSuSE project that would not be good.
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nwrickert
sand groper
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join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·AT&T Midwest
| I purchase the DVD, mainly as a way of supporting the project.
The release timing isn't as important as the support timing. I tend to continue with a release until support ends, unless there is something I badly want that has been added to the newest release. |
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joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
·AT&T U-Verse
| said by nwrickert :I purchase the DVD, mainly as a way of supporting the project. The release timing isn't as important as the support timing. I tend to continue with a release until support ends, unless there is something I badly want that has been added to the newest release. They sent me the box for free, probably for submitting too many bug reports 
I agree... I still have 10.3 on my laptop. After having massive issues on 11.1 I think I'll hold back from upgrading.
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orion940
Paralyzed By Confusion
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join:2001-12-23
Windsor, CT
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| reply to happylurk
said by happylurk :
Personally I like a longer release cycle. I wouldn't even mind a 12 month release cycle.
IMHO that would give us all some much needed breathing room between upgrades.
I like a 12-month cycle as well.
If you are running any small office business, you don't need to be constantly updating. By time you get something stable, a new one comes out. I tend not to upgrade until there is a compelling reason. 10.3 worked very nicely for me. 11.1 is OK with KDE3.5.
FWIW, I'd like to see them focus on a clean upgrade path. I did start from scratch with 11.1, and while it's good to clean house once in a while, I don't need to do it all the time.
O.
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nwrickert
sand groper
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join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL
·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T Midwest
| I did start from scratch with 11.1, and while it's good to clean house once in a while, I don't need to do it all the time. I always do clean installs. I keep my own files on a separate partition, so that they won't be affected. I have never done an upgrade install.
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SUMware
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join:2002-05-21
3 edits | said by nwrickert :I always do clean installs. I keep my own files on a separate partition, so that they won't be affected. I have never done an upgrade install. Exactly. Me, too.
One of the nice things about openSUSE is that the repos are constantly updated to the latest versions 24/7. With YaST it's simple to stay current at whatever level the user chooses. And, of course, no one is forced to immediately upgrade to the next OS version as each is supported for 2 years. |
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orion940
Paralyzed By Confusion
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Windsor, CT
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| I meant not having to reinstall all the products (firefox, etc etc etc.) would be the benefit. The other stuff, I have isolated as well.
Was there a way I could have just pointed to the new repo's and not had to worry about what I had installed and stuff?
Feel free to dump on me, it would be the fourth or fifth layer up anyhow, today. I won't feel it. Sometimes you're the pidgeon, sometimes you're the statue. Today is statue day for me. 
O.
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happylurk
@look.ca
| Actually that's an annoying thing about a SuSE upgrade install that's bothered me for years.
Every install, be it fresh or upgrade, reverts to the same 3 or 4 standard repos regardless of how you may manually try and update them to the extra repos.
The result is that the SuSE upgrade sees all your proprietary installed programs as deprecated and uninstalls them.
Leaving you with an extra few hours work to bring any system back to your own personal working specs.
If SuSE wanted to make upgrades painless, they'd automatically allow you to add Packman and Videolan and Non-OSS repos right from the beginning. But they hold firm on this blockheaded issue as a matter of policy it seems. |
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SUMware
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join:2002-05-21
3 edits | said by happylurk :
If SuSE wanted to make upgrades painless, they'd automatically allow you to add Packman and Videolan and Non-OSS repos right from the beginning. But they hold firm on this blockheaded issue as a matter of policy it seems. No they don't.
As has been explained to you in this forum numerous times (as well as available information on the openSUSE site) this has to do with international legal and licensing issues. Here are the links again:
Discover It - Restricted Formats and openSUSE - Restricted Formats |
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happylurk
@look.ca
| What's the point of making you jump thru an extra hoop AFTER installing to accomplish the same thing?
WHY does it make ANY F*ing difference if you have to make a conscious effort add the repos DURING the install instead of AFTER?
To me the entire "GPL" line of bullshit smells like so much bullshit anyway. Distros like Mint and Medialinux don't put people thru this garbage simply for the sake of keeping their metaphorical hands "Spotlessly OCD Clean..."  |
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orion940
Paralyzed By Confusion
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Windsor, CT
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| I was going to say that, but I was busy googling pictures of statues with pidgeon aftermath.
I agree with happy 100%. I understand there are laws that say they can't have/include all this, but if they allow the additions after the fact from a third party, just cut the chase and let us put the repo's in at install time.
This was my major complaint (well one of them), about Windows, you got to start over. OS/2 was the only one I recall not having to go through the BS of reinstalling everything.
O.
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happylurk
@look.ca | reply to SUMware
Even Ubuntu doesn't put you thru the garbage of reselecting all repos after an upgrade install. It automatically assumes you have made your legal decisions on the first install. |
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SUMware
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join:2002-05-21
4 edits | reply to happylurk
said by happylurk :WHY does it make ANY F*ing difference if you have to make a conscious effort add the repos DURING the install instead of AFTER? To me the entire "GPL" line of bullshit smells like so much bullshit anyway. Distros like Mint and Medialinux don't put people thru this garbage simply for the sake of keeping their metaphorical hands "Spotlessly OCD Clean..." Rant away all you like revealing your lack of understanding and crudeness.
SUSE is based in Germany. |
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orion940
Paralyzed By Confusion
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join:2001-12-23
Windsor, CT
·AT&T Yahoo
| said by SUMware :Rant away all you like revealing your lack of understanding and crudeness. SUSE is based in Germany. They can't include it, Fedora won't include it, but in either case the user can add products, features, etc. according to the laws of their own country. So do the disclaimer once, and get it over with. Packman repo is in Germany, BTW.
O.
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