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Mandrake Linux Development Process Changes
joestar writes "Just found at MandrakeLinux.com: 'MandrakeSoft today announced a major evolution in the way that future Mandrake Linux distributions will be engineered and released. The purpose of this new development process is to provide the highest level of new features, as well as maximizing the quality of new products.' In short: for each release, there will be a 'Community' release, equivalent to a common Mandrake release, with all latest features. Several months later an 'Official' release - based on the 'Community' - will be available. Both of them will be released publicly and supported. The new process will start with the upcoming Mandrake 10.0."
Here is the problem I see with this. They are trying to have their "Official" release be less buggy than recent releases. They claim that the problems with the recent releases are because not enough gets ironed out in the betas.
So, they are breaking the final release into "Community" and "Official" branches. Won't the "Community" release eventually become synonomous with "beta." In the end, fewer people will run this community release, and fewer bugs will be found in it. If this happens, problems will undoubtedly creep into the "Official" release and only be found then because more people are running it.
Anyway, it seems to me they are just trying to rename the word "beta," which is not a solution to the problem they are trying to fix.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
Nobody gets paid to use the 2.5 series kernels to prove 2.6 is good. There will always be people out for the latest & greatest... and plenty of whom would not care about being paid.
SIG: HUP
I honestly don't think it sounds like that bad an idea. Most home users don't need the testing and would like the features. With easy updating most home users can afford to use a less tested package. And for those who do not like the idea, they can wait for the official release. It gives them a situation akin to Debian's unstable/stable development where the stable branch is solid but aged, and the unstable branch is usable but current.
I do security
Beta -> Alpha
Community edition -> Beta
Official edition -> Release version
It just means people will wait out until the Official Release is available. This will not have a significant impact on defect reduction based on higher rates of beta testing.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
I think it's a way of getting people to join the Mandrake Community which is not very expensive anyway. I see it as a gentle nudge for those who actively use Mandrake and want immediate access to new releases. It really is for a good cause. I support their decision as I use their Linux distro on many customer sites.
Suncoast Linux - Sarasota, FL
...as far as I can tell, is that they're adding a "gamma testing" phase between the open-beta-test phase of the Cooker process, and the official put-it-in-boxes-and-call-it-done release. Seems like a reasonable move, because it lets users be a little more granular in deciding just how bleeding-edge or risk-averse they want to be with new versions.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
And Mandrake Cooker is 5 years old. Both Fedora & Cooker are experimental and quite buggy Linux distributions. The new Mandrake development scheme is an extention/evolution of this process, but you cannot compare it to Fedora. If you really need to compare it to something else, compare it to Debian stable/unstable branches...
Well, the community version of Mandrake is just an early build of the release. Unlike Red Hat, Mandrake is actually releasing the "official" version for public download, as it's stated "after a short delay, Mandrake Linux 10.0 Official Download Edition will be made available on public FTP mirrors". This is a signficiant difference from Red Hat's business model.
It's a bit more like Debian than RedHat's model I think. The Community release will be functionally complete, but has bugs.. i.e Beta. The Official release will be the Community Release put through a QA process which seems to depend heavily on feedback from Community users. This is pretty much how I've seen Debian handle it's stable/unstable branches, although I'll admit I pay less attention to the Debian dev process than RedHat's.
Personally, I think it's not a bad model for getting higher quality on a shoestring. I don't think Mandrake is out of the deep water yet, so I definately commend their ability to find innovative solutions to providing higher quality in their products.
Fedora seems to be a sort of less public version of this policy. Fedora (Community) users add features and test the Beta quality software. The cream is incorporated into RH products and put through traditional QA testing, which is probably a much larger operation than what Mandrake can muster.
Just my 0.0160900 EUR on the announcement.
Arrogance is Confidence which lacks integrity. -- me
And the great thing about all this is that those who want the bleeding-edge stuff get it, and the others (e.g. newbie, corporate user, etc.) get something that's stable right out of the box. I can see this as being a great way to sort out the bugs before the corporate guys install it and toss it to the side after playing with it for 10 minutes. This way, they get something very stable and usable that could gain widespread use throughout various companies.
First off the source to RHAS is available so feel free to download it and compile it yourself. New distros like Whiteboxlinux have done exactly that. Don't want to compile it or download it from someone who has? Spend your own money on R&D and then make your own distro. You can then give it away for free compiled or do whatever you want with it.
Second, comparing the Mandrake download version with what you get with RHAS is a disingenuous comparison at best. They simply aren't in the same league.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
This is a very smart move by Mandrake. The Cooker idea worked well, but it was never officially promoted in a big way i.e. you never hit the Mandrake home page and saw "Cooker release 9.2 available for download"
,you must know what you are doing - and you'll just end up using Cooker anyway.
,but not experienced enough to compile their own kernels. And that's a good thing - more exposure to a wider range of platforms and better bug feedback.
Dare I say, but it sounds very like the Debian way of doing things (unstable - testing - stable).
But there's a double-edged sword with doing things this way , in that you'll never have the bleeding edge stuff in a "Community" Mandrake release.
But then, if you want that
imho,the Community thing is more aimed at the general casual Linux user - a bit experienced
As an example on why they had to introduce this (possibly), the much advertised MandrakeMove Live CD doesnt even recognise some PCMCIA wireless cards in laptops. A bad oversight.
A MandrakeMove community edition would have helped in identifying this glaring omission.
Overall, it's a big big thumbs up from myself - well done Mandrake for introducing the Community Edition idea.
We'll end up with a Mandrake stable, which we've never had (and probably keeps them off some corporate desktops) and I'd imagine the testing Mandrake will be pretty much the same as regular Mandrake has always been (bleeding edge, sometimes buggy and still the best of both worlds).
For those posters complaining about the new 'Official' release being out of date, bleeding edge will *still* be in the community version, nothings changed. I'd guess the 'official' version will focus more on thier new Corporate desktop push and configuration/usability technologies. Makes perfect sense to me and maybe we can see some more serious usability enhancements (DrakConf is great, but not much has changed lately) now that some of their costs will be more focused (if the community comes together, which seems pretty active already in the club).
Quack, quack.
Don't folks get it? All Mandrake is doing is:
1. Making the normal release available to non club members.
2. Updating the mirrors with security/bug fixes, etc.
3. Making a second release, first for club members, then for everyone.
In other words, just adding another "super stable" release to the current release cycle.
What they ultimately GET is self-evident. If you're downloading betas and release candidates and providing feedback (via mailing lists, bugtraq, whatever), what you end up getting is a more stable distro with features yourself and others have requested. Input is valuable in projects of this scale *particularly* with the unbelievable variety of x86 hardware. What works for you may not work for someone else with identical hardware, differing only by something as miniscule as a single piece of usb hardware.
Don't folks get it? All Mandrake is doing is... In other words, just adding another "super stable" release to the current release cycle.
Right... It looks more like an admission by Mandrake that they are unable to address the QA problems that have plagued their distro for years. Rather than putting even more effort into testing, they're just going to wait for all the major bugs to hit the folks that download before pressing CDs.
It's a good strategy on Mandrake's part since it's cheaper than hiring additional developers, but personally I wouldn't touch the new download version with a ten foot pole.
I wonder how this will affect the 18 month EOL schedule Mandrake announced after RedHat switched to a 12 month EOL schedule.
Can grandma use it? Are programs and drivers simple to install? If not, it's back to the drawing board fellas.
One of the major problems with any Linux distro is the designers (nerds) make it for themselves. XP isn't dominant because of a monopoly, it's dominant because it's so damn easy for even the most inept of users. People could care less about security holes, instability, support-a-coroporate-monolith, if it means they can actually get their computer to do what they want it to.
You can be a Linux elitist all you want, but don't blame Microsoft for the Open Source's failure to create a product for the MAJORITY of desktop users (read: computer illiterates).
Corporations: your universal scapegoat for all society's ills.
Good Troll, but *Red Hat* is the one innovating here.
I'll be sure to tell the Debian project that the way they've been doing things for the past 10 years is now an "innovation" from Red Hat.
Jay (=
not their fault fucking idiot hardware manufacturers use a command for something other than it's intended purpose
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."