[64studio-devel] New kernel & GNOME backports

[Free Ekanayaka]

Hi Tim,

|--==> tim hall writes:

  th> Free Ekanayaka wrote:
  >>Hi Daniel,
  >>
  >>|--==> Daniel James writes:
  >>
  DJ> Hi Free,
  >>>>We could try to
  >>>>backport individual applications (e.g. synaptic) instead of the whole
  >>>>suite.
  >>
  DJ> Alternatively, we could plan to backport the whole of Gnome 2.20 when
  DJ> it becomes available, with 64 Studio 3.0 in mind.
  >>
  DJ> However I think we have to be careful not to go 'release crazy' :-)
  >>
  DJ> People sometimes say Debian has a long release cycle, but if you look
  DJ> at what Microsoft does, they put out a major version of Windows every
  DJ> 3-5
  DJ> years and a bugfix/security update every 1-2 years. This gives the
  DJ> Windows application developers, hardware vendors and everyone else a
  DJ> realistic amount of time to adjust to the new version. Even then, some
  DJ> people feel like they *have* to upgrade Windows too often.
  >>
  >>You're right, but compared to Windows the Linux desktop environments a
  >>relatively young, and sometimes it can make the difference which
  >>version of GNOME or KDE you are using. Anyway, according to the report
  >>we received, the changes between GNOME 2.14 and 2.18 are not so
  >>terrific, that we absolutely want them.
  >>

  th> I confess there are few improvements in 2.18 that I can be objective
  th> about. It's little things that I like, like the theme manager no
  th> longer requesting confirmation when you drop a new version of a theme
  th> on it, it has saved me a bag full of mouse clicks and widget
  th> redrawings while I'm theme designing. 

Which application/package is that exactly? Maybe we could backport it
while leaving the rest untouched.

  th> It does _seem_ a bit shinier and
  th> cleaner, but that is my highly subjective opinion at the moment. It
  th> would look good in publicity to keep a more recent version number, but
  th> the critical issue is really whether users can continue recording
  th> their album or whatever without having to get under the bonnet and fix
  th> things. As Hector Centeno suggested in an earlier thread, improvements
  th> and fixes may come to light through extended use. However, unless that
  th> does prove to be the case, the work involved in Free maintaining a
  th> backported version of GNOME is probably not the best use of time and
  th> energy. =|

Exactly :)

  th> I would like to keep Synaptic 0.60, I'll have a look at it later and
  th> check whether the bug reports on earlier versions are reproduceable
  th> for me.

Ok we can keep that then.

  th> The argument as to whether to stick with etch or move up to lenny will
  th> be entirely pragmatic, we know that studios require utter system
  th> stability, but multimedia software for Linux is still young and
  th> support for new hardware (like firewire, USB and wireless) and
  th> realtime capabilities are particularly important, this is more a
  th> kernel issue than anything else, but the need for kernel compatibility
  th> with the rest of the Operating System has forced adoption of the
  th> testing branch in the past, fairly soon after changes in the base
  th> system have settled down. This may slow down with increased software
  th> stability, but we will always need to keep up with new hardware.

You're right, hardware compatibility is most of the times a kernel
issue, you don't have to replace the whole system just to support a
new video card.

  th> I guess our primary concerns are: functionality relating to multimedia
  th> use; hardware support; and fixing known bugs. In short, maintaining a
  th> productive usable system, which oddly enough is what we already
  th> have. We'd be better off consolidating 64studio-2.x with a new kernel
  th> and bugfixes for the rest of the summer (and enjoy a bit of sun while
  th> it lasts) and investigate feature upgrades in the Autumn with a view
  th> to 3.0. I might be able to come up with some objective arguments about
  th> GNOME by then. ;)

That's a good plan. I think we can sport a couple more releases of the
2.x series, to make it really solid and complete. Then we think about
the 3.0, with big changes like GNOME etc..

Ciao!

Free