Thanks Shawn! Your answer is very helpful. Especially your note about keeping up to date with the latest major version after a number of releases.
On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 6:35 PM Shawn Heisey <apa...@elyograg.org> wrote: > On 1/29/2020 11:24 AM, Jeff wrote: > > Now, we are considering 8.2.0, 8.3.1, or 8.4.1 to use as they seem to be > > stable. But it is hard to determine if we should be using the bleeding > edge > > or a few minor versions back since each of these includes many bug > fixes. > > It is unclear to me why some fixes get back-patched and why some are > > released under new minor version changes (which include some hefty > > improvements and features). > > <snip> > > > > > To clarify, I am mostly asking for some clarity on which versions > *should* > > be used for a stable system and that we somehow can make it more clear in > > the future. I am not trying to point the finger at specific bugs, but am > > simply using them as examples as to why it is hard to determine a release > > as stable. > > > > If anybody has insight on this, please let me know. > > My personal thought about any particular major version is that before > using that version, it's a good idea to wait for a few releases, so that > somebody braver than me can find the really big problems. > > If 8.x were still brand new, I'd run the latest version of 7.x. Since > 8.x has had a number of releases, my current thought for a new > deployment would be to run the latest version of 8.x. I would also plan > on watching for new issues and being aggressive about upgrading to > future 8.x versions. I would maintain a test environment to qualify > those releases. > > All releases are called "stable". That is the intent with any release > -- for it to be good enough for anyone to use in production. Sometimes > we find problems after release. When a problem is noted, we almost > always create a test that will alert us if that problem should resurface. > > What you refer to as "bleeding edge" is the master branch, and that > branch is never used to create releases. > > Thanks, > Shawn >
