Phil Mocek <pmocek-list-suse@mocek.org> [7 Apr 2004 17:03:21 -0700]: First of all, please *don't* send an unnecessary extra copy of your mail directly to me. I do read the list so such mails are totally unnecessary.
So if it's a ``minor bug'', (e.g., ``NTP doesn't work but can be easily fixed''),
NTP *does* work! It's just that it can't open the drift file and thus can't record the drift of the PC clock and will therefor begin it's drift cycle the next time you start it.
SuSE leaves it up to the customer to discover the bug post-installation, search for SuSE's description of the problem and fix or workaround, then (in this case) go into the filesystem and make the change, outside of package management
Yes, the SUSE Linux customer has to search the support database. Customers who bought SLES and the maintenance available for it do get directly informed when updates are available for them.
and with no guarantee that the change won't be wiped out by RPM with the next upgrade of the package?
The bug *is* fixed, it just won't get issued as an official update. But if a serious bug is discovered and therefor an update issued, it will contain the fix for a minor bug.
Yes, but would it be announced at all? If so, where would a new customer find archives of past announcements?
For security? The SUSE web site. For normal bug fixes there isn't an official announcement, only buyers of the business products get additional information.
site) discover that the latest release is currently broken,
It has a bug, it isn't broken.
1. Install software via official SuSE package (latest release) 2. ``See if it works'' 3. If not, search sdb, mailing lists, and the Web, for clues?
If it's a major and or security bug, an update is available, so just start YOU and fetch them. Otherwise it *always* pays top monitor and search the SDB. Philipp