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Linux Distributions' Tracking of Upstream Projects Examined

Posted by timothy on from the perhaps-software-should-come-with-renewal-dates- dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Linux distributions track upstream projects, releasing a particular version with each official release. But how far behind the latest versions do these releases linger? Scott Shawcroft did an interesting new study into this relationship between distributions and upstream projects. Shawcroft says: 'Over the last 10 months I've been working on Linux evolution research. Similar to distrowatch, I track the current versions of packages in a number of distributions and the current upstream version. Based on that data I then graph a number of metrics to understand the relationship between upstream and downstream.' His presentation on the topic scheduled for [this] week's open source convention, OSCON, should provide an interesting insight into that relationship. Currently he is tracking 20 projects including the Linux kernel, Firefox, GCC, OpenSSH and GNOME on Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, openSUSE, Sabayon, Slackware, and Ubuntu."

5 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. What's Firefox? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I run Debian you insensitive clod!

    1. Re:What's Firefox? by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Funny

      If I ever find a woman named Debbie Ann, I'll marry her.

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      Free Martian Whores!
    2. Re:What's Firefox? by XPeter · · Score: 3, Funny

      You kidding? Slashdotters have a better chance at marriage then sex. Women hardly want it as it is, and nerds are a total turn off.

      Slashdotter: Hey, so after the movie you want to go to my place?
      Babe: Sure
      Slashdotter: Here it is! *walks in*
      Mom: Hey honey, how was the date?

      --
      "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
    3. Re:What's Firefox? by just_another_sean · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually Ubuntu is an African word that means "one who is unable to install Debian".

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      Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
  2. Re:fair comparison ? by pembo13 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Fedora is not a dev release.

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    "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft