On 19 September 2013 16:13, Priyanka Sarkar efyedit6@efyindia.com wrote:
Dear All,
We thought of coming up a good story on the distro release time span. Our question is 'With many distros going for a six-monthly release cycle, do you think the release cycles of distros are too short? (And users don't have to upgrade on a frequent basis?) '
What do you think on this? Would really appreciate if you share your views elaborately.
Regards,
Priyanka
http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/**mailman/listinfo/linuxershttp://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
Dear Priyanka,
I am a fedora user here, been on it right from the start, and i seem to have settled in nicely to the 6 monthly cycle.
I typically have my laptop on even versions, and my desktop on odd versions, so i effectively upgrade each system once a year, expcept for a short time when i buy a new laptop. So i effectively have been following a yearly release cycle and have been on this pattern for almost 8 years now.
However, i see this changing soon. At least with fedora, they are making it simpler to upgrade and stay current, especially with the new 'fedup' based upgrade process. Earlier, for a clean upgrade, we had to first upgrade with the DVD, then re-configure all third party repositories, then update all packages to the latest versions, which easily became a day long activity on my then tiny 2 MBPS connection. My last 2 upgrades with fedup have meant that i downloaded the latest copy of exactly what packages i have installed, rather than the older or non-installed packages that just happen to be included on the dvd and then again getting the latest version from online repos. It also takes care of my rpmfusion and google repos, so my upgrade is a one shot activity of a few hours only on my now 40 mbps link. So now, both my desktop and laptop are on 19, and will upgrade to 20 when it comes out.
In the end, with easy package management, and an army of dedicated package maintainers updating popular packages to the latest version in most distros, the release cycle isnt as critical as it used to be, IMHO. As long as i get the latest versions and bugfix/backports of all my packages, i dont really mind being 1-2 releases behind the cutting edge. But if the upgrade is painless and smooth, why not be at the latest version?(unless i'm too lazy...:D)
Hope this perspective helps. Do feel free to buzz me for any further inputs.
Regards R. K. Rajeev