what is stable?

[Eli Wapniarski]

On Wednesday 28 January 2009 20:16:15 Rex Dieter wrote:
> Eli Wapniarski wrote:
>   But I do think that Fedora
>
> > stable releases should make a rule that core backends always be marked as
> > stable by the developers before they are released as stable in Fedora.
> > Not Beta, Alpha, or RC.
>
> Agreed, so what's your definition of "core backends", and does it
> include any or all of glibc, rpm/yum, X, gtk, qt, kde, dbus/hal,
> NetworkManager, or more?
>

OK... I'll guess I'll take a stab at this.

For the following I should add a caveat of reasonableness. The following 
should always be stable unless some real nasty springs up and the only way to 
fix it is by incorporating something less stable. But only as a very last 
resort.

1) glibc and kernel (I know... I've never seen unstable kernel released in 
Fedora).

2) Network Manager and dbus/hal

3) XWindows

4) Anything releated to package management. If for any reason that breaks boy 
are we in trouble.

5) All Mail Servers, Database Servers, Web Servers, DNS Servers. 
Authentication Services, etc.

I think the current model regarding things like qt/kde, gtk/gnome etc is just 
fine. Despite everything that is being discussed here we ussers and you 
packagers need to trust the good faith of developers enough that when they say 
stable they mean it. But, it would be good if major changes to complex 
software like the change between KDE 3.5 and 4.0 have some way to get roled 
back. Of course -- if the resources are there. If not well then we are the 
brave we are the foolish we are Fedora users :). I guess we'll just have jump 
in with both feet and do what we do so well. Provide polite and persistent 
feedback in order to assist in getting the problems solved and the packages 
improved.

All that being said, I still think every effort should be made to initially 
release stable versions. updates-testing is a great place to get Beta's and 
RC's if required to get fixes to real nasties that come up in the case of 
overlooked bugs or regressions.

Eli

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