On Monday 09 March 2009 11:16:33 pm Alberto Passalacqua wrote:
If there where not box, we could have now a 11.1.2 dvd. No other change needed. Exactly what you get with an install then 4/5 hours of dl right now, mostly for people without dl capacity, and convenience.
As Marcus said, creating these DVD would take time and effort, and has no relation with the box. We could in theory have respins even if there is a boxed version.
The point is that respins are not worth the time and the effort if not in extreme cases (see 10.1). You talk about 4-5 hours to install patches, but that's the case only if you install months after release and repeat the installation many times. If you are in the second case (installing many times or on many systems), you can always download the RPM's and build a local repository or simply put them in a directory and use that directory as repository.
Doing what you suggest, in a certain sense, save you (user) some time, but reduces the time people working on openSUSE work on the release, so it doesn't help, in the end, to have better quality distributions.
For me and most of guys on the list respin is wast of time. We don't need it. To make clear, nobody talked about respin boxed version. Sincerely, if we don't make better 11.2 GM than previous few, it is better to have respin. During development you make, for instance, few Alphas, Betas and RCs, how much more effort requires respin. Another fact is that total of updates is more than 1 GB for 11.1 i586. I tried to handpick just last versions or rpms for 11.1 i586, came to 300+ MB, and quit. Scroll bar was still in upper half, so total could be over 600 MB. I don't need all packages, but if I go to install on someone's computer I better have all updates. That makes 1.2 GB of updates for 32 & 64 bit. Thanks to problems with EXA I was in position to install 11.0, that has total of 3+ GB for i586 alone. If it is roughly proportional to 11.1 it is 3+ GB that I should have with me to make sure that prospective Linux enthusiast get all updates, fast. Besides, respin would be chance for marketing guys to bring attention to openSUSE: "From openSUSE workshop newest release! It installs smooth like a silk. The cutting edge 11.1 got polish ..." It would be better to have the same words applicable to GM, but upstream doesn't stop, so there will be updates no matter how good is GM. IMHO, the respin would target people that don't want to experiment. It is completely different public than the current one. The other way is to make sure that basic functions, installation, boot and X work flawlessly on major platforms, or give clear advice what release to use for best experience. Not working application is not a big deal (mostly), but workarounds to make system boot, is a problem (not for me, and most of folk here). -- Regards, Rajko -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org