Re:What do you think of the community/official spl
Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on January 23, 2004 02:27 PM
I see Mandrake as dynamic, constantly moving toward something better. Though, as you mentioned, 6 months is a rather rapid upgrade cycle for someone looking for a stable desktop. This is where the 18 month release cycle version comes in. You call 18 months too short, and it may well be, but stop and think what it means first.
With a rapid release cycle, providing prolonged support would mean supporting lots of different versions at the same time. If you slow down the release schedule, you end up with a base version that may need very significant updating upon install. I think Mandrake may have found a great solution in having two versions to meet two needs.
The first, a rapid release cycle version that will have the latest and greatest. This version does not need a long support period, as those who use it would be those who will migrate to new versions as they come out. Supporting even 2 versions of this (current and previous) would be more than sufficient to cover it's user base.
The second, with it's longer release cycle, would be for those looking for a stable installation with prolonged support. This would be easier for Mandrake to provide due to the longer release cycle, because the packages that go into it will have had user testing through the rapid release version. So even if Mandrake were to support only 2 versions of this one, it would be providing a support period of 3 Years.
With this, Mandrake would only be supporting 4 different versions of it's distribution at any point, possibly less depending on overlap between the two. This would ease the burden of prolonged support, while still what I feel would be sufficient support. And if this is not enough, each additional version supported would add an additional 1.5 years to the period of support.
With this, they would continue to be a very dynamic distribution for those who desire such, and for those wanting stability, their needs could be met also. I think Mandrake can provide the best of both worlds with this.
For me, personally, I rarely last between versions without upgrading things on my own, so much so that I have even found moving to the latest version of Mandrake will sometimes have older versions of some software then what I using. I will be one to use the 6 month release cycle version without a doubt.
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Re:What do you think of the community/official spl
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 23, 2004 02:27 PMWith a rapid release cycle, providing prolonged support would mean supporting lots of different versions at the same time. If you slow down the release schedule, you end up with a base version that may need very significant updating upon install. I think Mandrake may have found a great solution in having two versions to meet two needs.
The first, a rapid release cycle version that will have the latest and greatest. This version does not need a long support period, as those who use it would be those who will migrate to new versions as they come out. Supporting even 2 versions of this (current and previous) would be more than sufficient to cover it's user base.
The second, with it's longer release cycle, would be for those looking for a stable installation with prolonged support. This would be easier for Mandrake to provide due to the longer release cycle, because the packages that go into it will have had user testing through the rapid release version. So even if Mandrake were to support only 2 versions of this one, it would be providing a support period of 3 Years.
With this, Mandrake would only be supporting 4 different versions of it's distribution at any point, possibly less depending on overlap between the two. This would ease the burden of prolonged support, while still what I feel would be sufficient support. And if this is not enough, each additional version supported would add an additional 1.5 years to the period of support.
With this, they would continue to be a very dynamic distribution for those who desire such, and for those wanting stability, their needs could be met also. I think Mandrake can provide the best of both worlds with this.
For me, personally, I rarely last between versions without upgrading things on my own, so much so that I have even found moving to the latest version of Mandrake will sometimes have older versions of some software then what I using. I will be one to use the 6 month release cycle version without a doubt.
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