Netscape wasn't known to be broken when 6.4 was put together. It ran out of the box.
Only just. Had it been properly tested the problem would have been found. Are you suggesting that the test phase for a new SuSE distro amounts to "<click>, 'yep, that runs', <click>, 'yep, that too',....". Based on 6.4, you could be right.
Even if you interpose a public beta before release, bugs will still crawl through.
Subtle ones maybe, but not show stoppers.
A beta programme would also delay a release by several months, making SuSE "hopelessly out of date" in comparison with the lesser distros.
Several months? Where did you get that idea? Stick the ISO images onto a ftp server a few weeks before they are sent off to CD manufacture. A "few" can be defined as 2, 4, 6 or whatever is appropriate. Redhat tend to have quite long beta phases and it doesn't do their business any harm. Even a 2 week beta release phase for 6.4 would have seen the Netscape, Kpackage and other obvious bugs caught.
Some/more regression testing is called for to identify the "no-starters".
To that end, every package *should* include rules and/or tools for regression testing of that package. That would help to enforce the Unix-like process of combining stable components to build a system or distribution. It can also be used to "certify" systems that have been modified from the standard distibution.
If that sounds too much like Engineering; then I apologize.
I work in the test department for IBM's mass storage systems division. I write test tools for a living. I'm fully aware of the concepts involved in testing. It just requires someone to sit down and write a decent test plan (including functional, systems, regression, etc tests) then the tests in that plan need to be run. They can't hope to run the plan on all possible machines, with all possible combinations of hardware, so once they've got it basically right in their labs they should put it out to a wider audience. The people on this mailing list would be an excellent starting point for that. Give us the beta, the automated parts of the test plan (if possible) and 2 weeks to reports major bugs. The distro would be hugely better for it. -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq