Hi, Continual update is fine as long as the update process is: a) Automatic ( like MS Windows updates) b) Controllable ( Administrator decides when to implement) c) Reversable (when the update causes a problem)
In order to do that you need a very strict testing program of all updates, which I do not believe your community, though enthusiastic, can manage. You will also come to a point where you want to implement something that breaks previous compatibility and the only way to do that is to have a new version. In the history of computing all projects reach a point where new stuff cannot be implemented under the old rules/methods of the project and a new version is created which has little compatibility with the last version. There are various reasons for this, but I won't go into them here for the sake of brevity. My own personal experience of downloading from the latest SVN of ofbiz is of failure to build. Maybe I have been unlucky, but I would prefer there to be a current release that has all major bugs resolved as a working whole. Revisions to the major release should be made available as updates to the current stable release, but also added to a newer revised release that will become the next stable release. The updates could also be graded so that administrators of production systems could gain confidence as to whether the update is safe to install. Any update must be reversible in order to quickly undo an update which gave unpredicted results. Kind regards, Andrew Ballantine. -----Original Message----- From: Walter Vaughan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 29 December 2006 01:54 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Community supported releases WAS [Re: Properly edited OFBiz manuals] [..snip..] Golly, what a can of worms is open here. Actually what drew me to ofBiz was the amount of updates to the system. The last commercial ERP solution we considered was SYSPRO. The folks at Syspro PRIDE themselves on weekly ports to their software. I have/had an .iso of a marketing DVD they have with almost two hours of non-stop preaching how ERP systems must and should be updated on a continuous basis, and that point release updates are evil. (e.g. 5.0 -> 6.0 on done every 18 months) I was sold. Couldn't justify the seat costs for the number I needed, but I was sold on the concept. During our courting period I also got a weekly email that was similar to what Si Chen does with his blog listing the dozen or so improvements to the system in the past week, and this in an ERP system with 15,000 current installs. As a end user, what I am looking for is non-failure. Thus far I have more than enough trust in the core developers to always do the right thing. -- Walter -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.2/613 - Release Date: 01/01/2007 14:50 -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.2/613 - Release Date: 01/01/2007 14:50 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.2/613 - Release Date: 01/01/2007 14:50 ***************************************************************** This email has been checked by the altohiway Mailcontroller Service *****************************************************************
