On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 08:19:01AM -0700, Joseph Smidt wrote: > > To the Debian Developers, > > Again I am writing to mearly throw an idea out on the floor. It has to deal > with the stress of having release date to cram for, as well as being accused > of being a distro that never has up-to-date software in stable. I think you > could solve this with a pre-stable distro. > > This is how it would work: Packages are continuosly being uploaded into > unstable where active development is taking place. When they reach a low > enough RC count and have "served their time" in unstable they are uploaded > into testing. Here is where things would be different: > > Once every three months the new "Pre-Stable" distro will upload only those > packages from testing that have had 0 RC bugs for at least month and have > been flagged by their maintainers as a good version to entet stable. > > These packages will be uploaded into a current copy of stable where they > will be tested agiasnt the current stable for three months. At the end of > each month along the way, those packages that have not been able to survive > being with stable packages without having an RC bug will be dropped. Those > packages who survive for three whole months will be uploaded into stable. > The upload would then be like a mini "new release". > > Advantages for those using stable: > > 1. > > They get new packages without having to wait years for them. > 2. > > Since this process repeats itself every three months the uploads will > be very predictable, unlike testing which has uploads every day. > 3. > > These packages will have had zero RC bugs for at least four months > straight with three of those months being tested against the current stable > snapshot. > 4. > > These packages will have been flagged by their maintainers showing > these are good versions of the packages, ie, the maintainers know -1 and -2 > may not be ready for stable despite RC count and maybe -3 is better than > -4. > > > Advantages for developers: > > 1.) There will not be the stress of worrying about release dates. The > packages are readywhen they are ready, and will enter stable accordingly. > > 2.) They will be harassed less for taking so long for a major release. > > Disadvantages: > > 1.) Many may argue we don't need another Distro, we already have three, four > if you include experimental. ( I can already see responses sarcastically > suggesting we should have 20 or 30 distros.) > > 2.) Maybe it is not reliable to release pieces of a distro every three > months. (However, if the upload would damage anything in stable it would > surely be caught in three months.) > > 3.) Security issues. > > 4.) Tradition: (See Fiddeler on the Roof) > > Anyways, I again want to repeat it is only a suggestion. I would not want > Debian to do anything that would hurt Debian. However if it would help, all > the better. I wish you all the best. >
I suggested something kind of similar a while ago. Google the Debian archives for "temporal release." Not much interest in it overall, and I ran into time problems setting up the infrastructure to list which packages would be in the "pre-stable" and "stable" branches (in your terms). I might return to that in the next few months once real life settles down...... -- Patrick Ouellette [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Amateur Radio: KB8PYM Living life to a Jimmy Buffett soundtrack "Crank the amp to 11, this needs more cowbell - and a llama wouldn't hurt either" -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
