On Mon, 2008-12-22 at 13:59 -0500, James Tremblay aka SLEducator wrote:
Hey guys, What are the obstacles to the idea of marketing a full release at X.0 and then releasing\marketing "patch CD updates" instead of full community sub-releases(still a fully installable dvd if desired, specifically for the x.3)?
I want to address that idea, but there's something else I've been seeing
lately in the mailinglists as we talk about the future of openSUSE
development, etc. and that is the idea that we have "main
releases" (10.0, 11.0) and "sub-releases" (11.1, 10.2, etc.), as if to
say the big change is in the xx.0 release, and the .1, .2, & .3 releases
are all just "add-ons" to that.
IIRC, the numbers are just a branding thing, all releases are given the
same amount of importance no matter their number (in other words, we
could decide tomorrow to call openSUSE 11.2 "openSUSE 12.0", and
although it would be a break with the normal versioning system, it would
still be appropriate and the same level of attention and development
would be given to it.
I'm not saying I'd be totally against the idea of doing it the way you
describe, which is basically the SLED & Windows strategy, release a main
product (let's say openSUSE 12) then in 9 months issue a Service Pack
for it (openSUSE 12 SP1), etc. The problem I'd see is that development
wouldn't slow down, and we can't completely redesign or add tons of new
features in an update to an already-released OS, as users wouldn't
expect anything to change much as long as they're using the same
product.
This is where some of the "continual update" ideas for releases fall
apart: normal, home users don't expect things to massively change in a
typical system. Once they install one version, they learn it and know
it. If they choose to upgrade to the next *version* of openSUSE a year
or so down the road, then they expect some things to change, but not as
a normal update for the system with the same version number.
Now, on the topic of removing the need for users to have to
fresh-install, I'm with you on that idea, but how would your proposal be
any different than doing a Upgrade from the openSUSE disc now? Trust me,
if Upgrades worked reliably, (and I'm not saying they don't, I haven't
tried it in a while), then I would love the ability to give the disc to
my family and say "choose Upgrade, wait for it to install, then BAM!".
--
Kevin "Yeaux" Dupuy - openSUSE Member
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