Hi, this has been discussed recently already ---and still is, I believe---, but in the light of the recent announcement, that openSUSE 11.2 is not exactly around next corner, the issue should be given more attention, I think. * Problem: In order to bridge the long time until the next release, many of the more advanced users are trying to find a way in order to enhance their KDE4 experience on 11.1. And let's be honest: No one in his right mind would prefer 4.1.3 over 4.2.1 if given the choice. Same goes for Gnome and XFCE I suspect, but I am not into those. * Workaround: So, the question would be how the openSUSE project will give those a home who look for stability (as in "works reliably", not "doesn't change version number") *and* improved features. * Current "solution": Installing KDE4 from factory is not exactly an option for productive systems (even at home), since it is used for the development of upcoming releases. Packages change too often, and small features working today break tomorrow. * Better solution: Thus, instead of providing a better (i.e. more useable and reliable) factory release, I'd vote for a new, prominently placed repository which simply provides packaged versions of certain upstream projects: KDE4, Gnome and XFCE should definitely be enough in order to cover 95% of the users. * Objections, criticisms: There should be no extra work spent with patching, since those repos would contain pretty much plain vanilla upstream plus the usual branding. Also, given e.g. KDE and Gnome release cycles, the packaging/updating of the repo should happen only once every month, at the most. Announcements for such updates should appear in news.opensuse.org, which would surely increase the attention paid to that site, too. * Comparison with competing projects/distributions: This service is not so outstanding as it may sound: both Fedora and Mandriva (semi-)officially provide updated packages for KDE 4.2 even when they initially delivered 4.1.x, while openSUSE 11.x only offers updates from Factory, which I would never propose here in my office and lab environment, other than for myself. * Impact on user base and reputation: So, I feel that this would greatly improve our community orientation and would meet the wishes and requirements of a very important and big part of the openSUSE users, namely early adopters and the curious ones. Hobbyists, quite simple. The rest is using Windows and MacOS, anyway, or enterprise versions. Providing an easy-to-find rolling-release repository and package the upstream major and important minor releases for at least the most important desktop environments shouldn't be impossible. If it is, we really have a bad packaging concept... http://en.opensuse.org/BrainStorming_Prague/Way_we_do_packaging_is_ineffecti... Sorry in advance for this long email. My excuse is that it just shows how much I think that this is important and vital for keeping and growing our user base. Best regards from Freiburg, Daniel Mader -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org