>>>>> Scott Balneaves <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 03:01:56PM -0400, Patrick Rady wrote:
>> Actually, Intrepid pre-release has seemed less-crufty than
>> Hardy. But I'm almost afraid to try testing it.
> And here, my friends, is the ENTIRE problem.
> We work very hard to come out with new versions, but the number
> of people who take the time to TEST the new versions as they're
> coming out, and help us to FIX the bugs while things are still
> in development is small to non-existant. They simply show up
> when it's released, upgrade their systems, and then wonder why
> there's bugs.
> We don't have a crisis of LTSP faith. We don't have a crisis of
> Ubuntu faith.
> We have a crisis of users forgetting that Free Software's
> supposed to be a community, and that if you want this great free
> stuff, the price is for you to GET INVOLVED, and help the
> unpaid, volunteer developers to TEST the software in your
> environments, and work through things WHILE THEY'RE IN
> DEVELOPMENT, as opposed to waiting for release date, then
> testing it then.
Hi Scott,
I am a long time Slackware and OpenBSD user, so my perspective is
perhaps tainted by the stability of these systems, but:
To some degree, I agree with you. It is the responsibility of the
users of Free Software to help in the development, testing, and
documentation of the software. However, users (and especially admins
of a system that is designed to be deployed widely in an
organization), are also entitled to expect a fair degree of stability
and lack of major bugs in a GNU/Linux release, especially a long-term
release.
Even minor bugs that might be no big deal for a single user desktop
system can become major headaches for a large deployment.
I administered a Slackware system with LTSP in our library since LTSP
2 days, and once I got everything configured, it just worked and kept
on working. When LTSP5 came out, and there was no integration with
Slackware 12 apparent, it seemed easier to jump over to Edubuntu both
for ease of installation and administration. I have since regretted
that decision, for essentially the same reasons as others have
enumerated on this list. Things are running smoothly on Edubuntu
7.10, finally, but I am very reluctant to upgrade to 8.04.x unless I
can see better stability and application upgrade paths than I have in
the past.
OpenSUSE is an option that I am considering, as is going ahead and
doing the work necessary to get LTSP5 working on Slackware. However,
I don't really have the time to do the latter, so I might just go back
to LTSP 4.2 on Slackware.
I don't really mind if a development version or release canditate has
bugs or stability problems, but I expect an Ubuntu release to have
Slackware-like stability. Maybe that's asking too much? But Slackware
is essentially a one-man operation, with a handful of volunteers
helping out, and it is reknown for its stability. The next Slackware
release does not happen until it is thoroughly tested, even if that
means putting it off for months or years. That's fine with me.
If there has not been enough testing done, for whatever reason, to be
able to guarantee such stability, then perhaps the Ubuntu release date
needs to be pushed back indefinitely until the stability is ensured.
This is doubly important for LTS releases. We also need a safe way to
upgrade individual software packages without endangering the stability
of the system. If that is asking too much from the Ubuntu development
model, then Ubuntu is not a good choice for LTSP development, IMO.
I don't wish to denigrate in any way the efforts of people working on
LTSP5 and Ubuntu, but something needs to change if it is going to meet
the needs of organizations as opposed to single user desktop systems.
Respectfully,
--
Larry Stamm, Network Administrator
McBride and District Public Library
Ph: 250-569-2411
http://mcbride.bclibrary.ca
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