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Linux Distributions' Tracking of Upstream Projects Examined
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."
I was going to answer your comment based upon the prospect that it appear to imply religious conservatives as anti-sex until I realized upon closer inspection that you're probably referring to the "sex first, marriage later" behavior that is rather common in our society. In that case, you are correct.
However, (and please don't feel that I'm picking on you in particular--I have no idea what your beliefs are since that one statement doesn't tell enough to share with me your ideologies) there are some individuals who mistakenly believe that religious conservatives are anti-sex, anti-birth control and see it exclusively as a tool for procreation. While there are some who do genuinely believe this--I know of a few who truly do believe this line of reasoning--not all of us do. There are some of us (perhaps a small minority) that see utility in birth control--albeit within the context of marriage. Reading Paul's letters to the Corinthians sheds an interesting light on the notion of sex and its role, and it grows much more difficult to argue the "sex for procreation only" stance. To this extent, I disagree with those who believe sex is exclusively the domain of procreation even if I may be politically aligned with their beliefs.
Along these lines, this is one such thing that has often surprised with some religious conservatives (many of whom are NOT Catholic but protestant). Many of them agree with and believe many of the ideals that started in the Catholic church--including some the Pope has rescinded! It's amazing what a difference it makes to read the religious texts for yourself!
But no, I don't think it's fair to tar all of us with the same brush as some people are wont to do. Perhaps those who feel as I do would be considered more socially liberal (particularly with sex and its kin), although I can't say I'd be particularly fond of that label. ;)
He who has no