/usrmove? -> about the future

[Nils Philippsen]

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.

Nils
-- 
Nils Philippsen      "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase 
Red Hat               a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty
nils at redhat.com       nor Safety."  --  Benjamin Franklin, 1759
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