Robert Locke lists@ralii.com wrote:
[...]
What I think is lacking (but seem to be being worked on), is a convenient "upgrade" process within the "family". So that if I use Fedora 9 or 10, that I could "in-place" upgrade to RHEL/CentOS 6 when it comes out.
By the time RHEL/CentOS comes out, the Fedora from which it branched has long moved past it...
Historically, using RHEL/CentOS for desktop has been problematic for some given their "stability" and "lack of movement".
For many desktop uses the latest bling is definitely not a requirement, more the contrary. Sure, on notebooks stuff like WiFi is required (and needs a newer kernel, etc). Perhaps a line with the required packages (paralell to EPEL) would be doable?
But it does appear
that this is changing. Looking at RHEL/CentOS 5.2 compared to 5.0, there are some actual version upgrades to some of the packages, so perhaps it becomes more feasible for more people as a desktop.
It has always been that selected packages get version upgrades during RHEL's life. I'd suspect that happens when the pain of backporting gets too large and the visible differences are small enough to not make a difference. I.e., it helps you not a bit to get an "up to date desktop".