[GRLUG] WMNTUG Windows 7 Meeting

[john-thomas richards]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 12:22:24PM -0400, Bob Kline wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 12:14 PM, john-thomas richards <jtr at jrichards.org>wrote:
[snip]
> > > This isn't happening until next month, but Ubuntu will have ext4 as
> > > default in 9.10
> >
> > That's a pretty big endorsement.  Since I am running Debian stable I
> > won't be seeing 2.6.28+ for some time.  :-)
> > --
> > john-thomas
> >
> 
> Wasn't the Debian effort being
> criticized for being excessively
> cautious?  In the eyes of others
> anyway.
> 
Debian has long been criticized for being excessively cautious, but
remember, in operating system terms that generally means more stability
since a lot of the bugs that affect stability are fixed before the next
version of Debian goes live.

> I'd thought the releases were going
> to come a little more often now.
> 
>    -- Bob

Well....sort of.  There is general agreement among the developers to
release more frequently, but you will never see anything approaching the
frequency of a Ubuntu (who still continue to benefit from Debian's
approach).  If Debian could release every 18 months I'd be happy.  The
two- or three-year release (such as with Sarge) are really painful since
change happens so quickly in the FOSS world.  As I mentioned, I'm
running Debian Lenny (the current Stable) and I'm rock-solid.  For
example, I haven't experienced any instability with xorg that comes from
the new graphics execution manager (GEM) and kernels 2.6.28 and up.
(See http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090817#feature for more
details.)  That sort of instability cannot* happen with Debian since
Debian is so far behind the curve.

*Okay; "cannot" is a strong word—perhaps too strong.
-- 
john-thomas
------
Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit
men.
Sydney J. Harris, journalist and author (1917-1986)