On Wednesday 05 March 2003 04:07 pm, Timothy R. Butler wrote: > According to what I understand, Warly is reporting that Mandrake Linux 9.1 > will be finalized no later than March 14. In my opinion, this could very > well be a death sentence for MandrakeSoft. > > Quite frankly, Mandrake 9.1 has a LOT of showstopper/serious bugs still. > One long time Linux user I know who I sold on Mandrake 8.2, but couldn't > get 9.0 to install on several machines, has already posted on another list > that he is resigning himself to not upgrading to 9.1, because of all the > problems he had with RC1. He quite resonably realized that nine days just > isn't enough to fix problems like his. > > ........ <content snipped for brevity> > > Is it worth risking Mandrake's future as a whole to get this distribution > out by mid-March? I just don't personally see that as a realistic date when > I'm using RC2. Mandrake developers are amazing people, but I still can't > believe all of these problems can be fixed in just nine days. To me, RC2 > seems more like a beta release and not a release candidate. > > Just my $0.02... > I have followed Cooker for 4 releases now, 8.1, 8.2, 9.0 and now 9.1. The first two, I pretty much lurked and just tried to learn about the bug reporting and development process, and also pick up some tips for how to deal with some technical issues for final. 9.0 I got a little more courage to try and contribute some bug reports, and this time I have been actively testing and reporting and at this point interacting with the main development staff and contributors (I hope to positive result).
If I may make an observation based on my experiences to date. Every single release, as it gets closer to release time, someone makes a post like this and then everybody piles on. You'll notice that none of the Mandrakians or core contributors ever take part in it. Why, because they are busy trying to find the bugs and squash them before the release has to go gold. My understanding is that there are contractual requirements for hitting the release date. From the publisher of the boxes, to the retailer and wholsalers that ordered boxes. Not to mention this time, the financial issues that present themselves this year. Example from 9.0 http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=mandrake-cooker&m=103264057205311&w=2 Example from 8.2 http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=mandrake-cooker&m=101586308405135&w=2 http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=mandrake-cooker&m=101590595426934&w=2 Example from 8.1 http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=mandrake-cooker&m=100094637332251&w=2 I think the distro would be much better served all of use that are testers, to test the hell out of this thing, not just by saying something does not work, but by really going the extra mile and trying to figure out why something does not work. For instance, if the network does not work, install it a couple of times trying different settings, note how the contents of the config files change. And all this criticism over something that cannot really be controlled is fruitless and makes the people working 7day/80hour weeks feel negative and prevents high levels of productivity. Help them, don't hurt them. -- Greg
