This whole thread brings back a point I've been trying to make for over a year now. The point, openSUSE should not bother itself with LTS(long term support) for 3 (4 if SLE counted) distributions. I say, starting with 11.0 provide only support and fixes until 11.1(which should be an online upgrade via zypper)then only support 11.1 until 11.2, then 11.2 until 11.3 then give 11.3 a full three years support bringing us around to 12.3, this means that the team is only ever supporting 2 community distro's and one enterprise at a time and the *.3s can become new releases for SLE. This would make it clear that the other versions are truly community and that, to get the 5+ years a server should have, a person needs to subscribe to SLE. This should not offend openSUSE\SUSE customers and it should please and even entice non-enterprise subscribers to look more closely at SLE. While allowing more resources to be available to packaging a really nice retail box for the *.3s. Can anyone estimate the energy used to patch 10.3 that could have been avoided if the Devs were not back porting fixes to 10.1 and 10.2, but already working full-time on only 10.2+ when 10.3 was due to begin? These interim releases aren't much different than a SP anyway why not release them that way? openSUSE has a patch disk mechanism. Does anyone else see the wheel being reinstalled every time we take the car for a drive? Isn't a Distro that upgrades rather than replaces more flexible for the enthusiast and more reliable to the consumer? How much Alpha testing can be removed if *.2 truly is *.1 plus fixes? My vision in practice: Joe Consumer running 9.3: "Hey cool, 10.3 is out, I can't wait to see the new .....I have been hearing a lot of cool stuff about 10 and 9 has been so good to me!" Joe Enthusiast running 10.2: "Hey cool, 10.3 is out, I wonder if they included that new version of .... the one I'm running now is so buggy." How many sour moments, defections and poor reviews concerning 10.0 could we have been avoided? I see those reviews going from utter condemnation to "hey guys, the new interim from openSUSE has a few bugs, but, these guys really fix this stuff quick. check back later." Maybe, I've just been reading to much stuff like this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_Service_Management or I could just be nuts, let me know. -- James Tremblay aka, SLEducator Director of Technology Newmarket School District Newmarket NH 03857 Founder http://en.opensuse.org/education "Let's make a difference!" Registered Linux user #440182 CNE 3,4,5 CLP 9 CLE in training ;) --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org