PROPOSAL: Fedora user survey

[Terry Barnaby]

On 03/09/2010 02:57 PM, Al Dunsmuir wrote:
> Hello Seth,
> 
> Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 9:37:26 AM, you wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Tue, 9 Mar 2010, Al Dunsmuir wrote:
> 
>>> Hello Seth,
>>>
>>> Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 9:23:00 AM, you wrote:
>>>
>>>> Your primary server runs fedora? May I ask why?
>>>> -sv
>>>
>>> I  have  limited  time to do system installs and maintenance. Sticking
>>> with  one  distribution  helps keep that sane. I have a dual boot XP +
>>> Ubuntu machine that I do some play with, but I find it strange, having
>>> used  Fedora  since  FC3.
>>>
>>> If  Fedora isn't up to the task of handling the basic services that my
>>> server  provides  (dns,  dhcp, samba, ftp and http) for my home office
>>> with multiple PCs, what good is it?
> 
>> Handle the tasks? Sure fedora can - but it doesn't have the updates 
>> lifespan for a server.
>> -sv
> 
> Until  F8,  I  had  no  problems  with the 6 month release cycle.  I'd
> update  my  desktop,  then  update my server once I was confident that
> everything was stable.  I don't mind if it works.
> 
> I  prefer  to work on the server in X.  The massive X changes over the
> last  few  releases  introduced problems were for a good cause (but at
> the time were painful).  I expect that to be fairly settled down, as I
> don't run any applications that require 3d.
> 
> Bind  seems to messy by nature. Starting in F10, configuration changes
> were  required each release. These were not necessarily all documented
> (selinux,  chroot not working/recommended). Opening problem reports in
> Bugzilla helped to get those addressed.
> 
> I'd  like  to  get  back to where Fedora "just works", so I could have
> some  time to do development work in areas that would help move Fedora
> ahead.
> 
> Al
> 
I totally agree. The 6 month Fedora cycle with to much emphasis very
latest and in a lot of cases superficially tested packages is turning
me and I am sure more users off Fedora by the day. If there are not
enough "real users" then very little "real testing" will get done and Fedora
will not even be useful as a RedHat test platform.

There appear to be few major changes happening to the core Linux kernel
API and the system library API's etc (Graphics may be an exception
although this is a mess at the moment). So why do we really need a new
full release this often ? Why not try and keep the base system for at
least 12 months with 12.1,12.2 etc releases ?

To get stable, usable systems thought and stability at the various API
levels are essential. The quick release cycle where a lot of API's can
change I think is detrimental to this and to getting third party
software available.

There should be no problem having a multilevel package repositories
effectively allowing Fedora spins for experimenting with and testing
advances in particular directions (like rawhide we could have
graphics-testing etc).

There has to be a balance between speed of new releases and usability.
I personally thought the old 12 month RedHat Linux release cycle was about
right.

Terry