SuSE obfuscation of known issues [was: ntp drift file error..]

On Thu, Apr 08, 2004 at 12:35:39AM +0200, Philipp Thomas wrote:

Phil Mocek [6 Apr 2004 23:51:59 -0700]:

...

How long does it usually take SuSE to put a trivial fix like this in place?

Exactly *because* it's trivial and easily fixable by a user we won't issue an official update. Official updates are only issued for major and/or security bugs.

So if it's a ``minor bug'', (e.g., ``NTP doesn't work but can be easily fixed''), 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 and with no guarantee that the change won't be wiped out by RPM with the next upgrade of the package?

...

Does SuSE send out any type of notification to its customers when a bug such as this is identified?

By any means this isn't a security bug, therefor it won't get announced on the respective mailing list.

Yes, but would it be announced at all? If so, where would a new customer find archives of past announcements?

...

I'm still wondering how to search the SuSE bug tracking database. Does anyone know?

You can't, it's not open to the public.

Wow! That's unnerving, but good to know. What about my other question? I think this might be the single most important issue we could cover in this thread. I said: How could someone who is preparing to install SuSE's XNTP package (from a purchased copy or directly from SuSE's FTP site) discover that the latest release is currently broken, without performing the installation and observing the error logging? (Besides happening upon this thread, of course.) Does SuSE suggest the following practice? 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? -- Phil Mocek