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A Debriefing On Debian's Woody Release

Posted by timothy on from the freedom-of-information dept.

solferino writes: "Anthony Towns has posted a fairly detailed 'retrospective' on the release of woody and an 'introspective' on the future release of sarge." This is a long, informative read for anyone interested in how the complicated Debian release process plays out behind the scenes. ("Grep for 'realistic schedule'. Doh.")

17 comments

  1. Must.... release.... faster..... by Captain+Pedantic · · Score: 1


    The same thing they said two years ago after Potato was released. Ho hum.

    Still, nothing beats it, and I'm running a standard release for the first time in, um, two years.

    --

    None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
  2. Comments about boot floppies are now obsolete by psgalbraith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    debian-installer is not only the official way to boot for sarge, but boot-floppies are declared dead:

    http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2002/debian -project-200207/msg00094.html

    1. Re:Comments about boot floppies are now obsolete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thank god, maybe now the installer will become easier to use and up to date with other distros installers.

  3. boot floppy reinvention.. yet again? by cpeterso · · Score: 2


    Why does Debian completely rewrite their installer and boot floppies for each release? They can't seem to choose a design they can stick with. Both Woody and Potato suffered from buggy boot floppies that were delivered WAY past schedule, delaying the entire Debian release..

    --
    cpeterso
  4. That's not fair. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Last time I released my woody to the public, I got more than a debriefing. In fact, I spent 4 hours in a cell with the duty solictor trying to work out a plausible excuse to give the judge.

    That's the last time I do improv comedy outside a WI meeting.

  5. DVD Version of Woody by Some+guy+named+Chris · · Score: 3, Funny

    I downloaded the DVD version, but when I tried to play it in my DVD player, all I got was Richard Stallman on my TV yelling "It's GNU /Linux!".

    1. Re:DVD Version of Woody by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      now that's funny

    2. Re:DVD Version of Woody by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's "GNU/Woody", dammit!

  6. Hehe... woody... release.... by jzarzosa · · Score: 1

    Sorry, don't mean to sound like a 10 year old, but you gotta admit the naming convention is quite funny ;)

    --
    Domains for only $8.75/year! Transfer your domain for on
    1. Re:Hehe... woody... release.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, no shit. Instead of "sarge" I think the next releases should be called "chubby" and "stiffy".

      --Babalu Frankenheimer, Communications Workers of Bonerland Local #285

  7. Why so few posts? by Paul+Bain · · Score: 1

    &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp I am amazed at the paucity of posts relating to this story. I thought that there were many thousands of Debian users on Slashdot. And I thought that nearly everyone would have an opinion on why Woody was delayed so. Am I wrong?

    --

    A lawyer & digital forensics examiner. Also an expert on open source software (OSS).
    1. Re:Why so few posts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They've probably all been r00t3d due to the latest openssl exploit.

    2. Re:Why so few posts? by HP+LoveJet · · Score: 1

      I think it's because this is a Red-Headed Stepchild story that got posted to dev.s.o but never made it to the front page.

      --
      spawn_of_yog_sothoth
    3. Re:Why so few posts? by MessageDrivenBean · · Score: 1

      It doesn't really matter, since you could have been running Woody from the day Potato was freezed anyway. I have.

      --
      Quisque verborum suorum optimus interpres...
  8. Debianers go! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm a debian n00b after several years (about 6) using caldera, red hat, mandrake...

    What else can I say, now i'm running Unstable as stable as previous distros (even more) and I'm in love with apt.

    PS: go, comment, go! :wq