Civileme <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Right now, mirror space requires that cooker-frozen be a beta tree for a
> while, but when the folks at Mandrakesoft find their time elapsed.... Then
> the tree becomes invalidated by their need to work on other architectures.
>
> Let's face it. Quality-at-all-costs dictates we expunge bugs forever before
> releasing a distro. Practical considerations, such as the publication of
> paper documentation, box design and production, and industry windows for
> major production enter into this equation. So that leaves us following a
> rush to find the big bugs before the DEADLINE. And it is a deadline...
> dictated by the delicate balance between an open-source product and the need
> to have paid employees, office facilities, internet connections, computer
> equipment, and so on. Unfortunately, we doing the testing do not have a good
> handle on when this deadline will occur.
>
> Moreover, we are not unified in our opinions of what constitutes a really big
> BUG. For someone who rips CDs and prepares Mp3s for re-recording, the
> actions of msec at High security could be considered a major bug. But for
> me, a show-stopper would be inability to access old windows files in FAT32
> partitions (We still have lots of data unconverted). So, since we do not
> have a common front on what is major and what is minor, our opinions must be
> less credible than the opinions of those who work on the distro and are
> accountable to investors. I am not saying this is right, just the way
> authority works.
>
> If Mandrake can be faulted in this process, it is more for their inability to
> communicate these considerations effectively to their beta-testers,
> documenters and corps of helpers. Still, they have begun gathering DATA from
> users about their distro, and making decisions based on data does eventually
> lead to rebuilding oneself about the standard of quality first.
>
> I believe it is appropriate to support and encourage that effort. Bashing
> them for not including us in their decision loop may not be quite as
> productive. We do not, after all, work at the company and cannot know all
> that influences the decision-making process.
Well. I think I could not summarize it *that* perfectly.. It's just
perfect.
However, to end in another "good" point, we are in the process of asking
ourselves how we could kill our inability to communicate well these
information to this list. Hopefully, in the future, a bit less frustration
will come out of this deadline and beta stuff.
Thanks again to all of you Cookers for keeping the contact with us in
these times where we could handle the situation better.
--
Guillaume Cottenceau
