fedora mission (was Re: systemd and changes)

[Paul W. Frields]

On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 12:59:57PM -0700, Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-08-24 at 15:40 -0400, Matthew Miller wrote:
> 
> > This *is* happening, and we need to tread carefully, because once you loose
> > respect and reputation, it is very, very hard to get back.
> 
> I really think you're extrapolating too far from some very limited data
> here. You have some statistics which indicate that Fedora usage is
> declining. You are extrapolating from this to the conclusion that this
> is happening because Fedora changes too rapidly. I don't think your data
> support your conclusion; I haven't seen you cite any data in support of
> your assumption as to the *reason* Fedora usage is declining.

I don't think anyone can generalize that the usage of Fedora is
declining.  What we can prove, and certainly is troublesome, is that
yum check-ins of successive releases have been dropping by a couple
percent each release (although downloads are actually up), compared on
a per-week basis.  It's no less likely that this decrease is due to
people just staying on a stable release, even past EOL.  I've heard
anecdotal evidence to support that, which is no more or less valuable
than any other anecdotal evidence being presented, I suppose (IOW,
probably not worth a thing).  If someone can present a hard analysis
that points to only one possible scenario, fantastic -- we can start
looking at causes.

None of the foregoing paragraph is meant to write off concern about
watching out for our users.  We can innovate, and we can do it with
proper care for a wide group of people, including people like Matt who
are experienced sysadmins not opposed to change "a priori" (lifting
your words, Matt).

But we can't innovate at all without trying new things at some point.
That point ought to be based on something solid like the acceptance
criteria Bill's already writing up.  Then FESCo can have more
confidence in making a decision about it.  I'd rather concentrate on
that constructive effort than epidemiologically questionable
generalizations.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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