On Mon, 2012-02-13 at 14:47 +0100, Nils Philippsen wrote:
On Fri, 2012-02-10 at 11:08 -0800, Adam Williamson wrote:
> Let me put it this way, then: Fedora is released on a six month cycle,
> which is far faster than is usually considered desirable for server
> usage. It has a 13 month lifetime, which is far shorter than is usually
> considered desirable for server usage. Its key values and goals are
> assuredly not compatible with typical server usage - e.g. "First - We
> believe in the power of innovation and showing off new work in our
> releases. Since we release twice a year, you never have to wait long to
> see the latest and greatest software, while there are other Linux
> products derived from Fedora you can use for long-term stability. We
> always keep Fedora moving forward so that you can see the future first."
> There are numerous practical policies derived from these values which
> are clearly not optimal for server usage, such as the short freeze
> times, relatively low barrier of entry to disruptive features, and QA
> focus on installation and basic desktop use (we do virtually no QA on
> any kind of server usage). Finally, there are *several* Linux
> distributions available which have none of the above 'shortcomings' (so
> far as server usage is concerned).
I'd say the same 'shortcomings' also hurt the end user case. The
non-technical people I deal with loathe how we often introduce new
features and break stuff (or just their way of doing things) in the
process, even in updates -- I've stopped counting the "Oh, updates. I
wonder what you guys have broken now."-style comments by my wife. To me,
Fedora is much better suited to be run on servers than by end users --
admins usually can help themselves in these situations.
Don't take this as being against the slew of features Fedora introduces:
personally I'm much in favor of systemd, the /usr move, pulseaudio and
all that stuff -- there's no point in just treading water and being on
the forefront of things is where Fedora is supposed to be. But let's not
kid ourselves into thinking that with a life-cycle of only 13 months and
the amount of change we introduce in each new release (especially on the
desktop) we're somehow catering to end users who don't have a
technically skilled spouse, relative or friend in the background to help
if things don't work as expected.
That also, at least arguably, isn't Fedora's aim (if it was, we'd be
doing a terrible job of it, I agree). To cite the Board again:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User_base
"Voluntary Linux consumer
Computer-friendly
Likely collaborator
General productivity user"
Those four - especially 'computer-friendly' and 'likely collaborator' -
don't scream 'end user' to me. My personal take has always been that
Fedora is not the friendly desktop operating system of today, but a
*prototype* of the friendly desktop operating system of tomorrow. A
constantly moving prototype - so it never sits still and becomes the
friendly desktop operating system of today. :)
--
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | identi.ca: adamwfedora
http://www.happyassassin.net