Re: A "progressive" distribution

[bug1 <bug1@netconnect.com.au>]

"Bernhard R. Link" wrote:
> 
> After reading this nice diskussion with all it's aspects, I want to
> complete the mess and suggest a "distribution" called
> e.g. "progressive" beetween stable(frozen) and unstable.
> 
> As I understood the problem, at the moment, only the stable
> distribution is able to be distributed, while the unstable branch is to
> unstable and there's no distrubution in between. (To simplify I count the
> frozen as stable short before release here.)
> 
> When potate becomes stable, a branch called e.g. "progressive" could be
> created between the branches "stable" and "unstable". This branch (sorry
> for using this term, but I don't like distribution so much) would start
> with the modules from stable and subsets of unstable would be added, if
> they are usable. The term subset I use for  packages that contain together
> like one ore more basis packages (libc,xfree,perl,... or just something
> like emacs) and those packages depending on this basis package. (Note that
> I mean basis as basis of dependencies not basis of the whole or larger
> parts of distribution)  And usable shell mean, that this package can be
> used for average use without the need of Debian-like-tability.
> 
Do you mean like, Slink 2.1 r1, 3.1r2, 2.1r3, 2.1r4 ?

Id like to see a rolling stable release, where unstable package have to
meet a certain pre-defined criteria before they can be considered
stable.
Like to be stable, a package must not have any rc bugs, or have any rc
bugs in its dependencies.
It would also have to be exposed to the masses for a certain period of
time in unstable before being considered for stable.
 
This type of arangment could be automated prety well, it would depend on
people reporting bugs and would place extra strain on bug tracking, but
i think it would be easier than trying to get all the latest versions of
each package bug free at one point in time. 

A "rolling" stable release such as this may well scale better than the
traditional release model.

Just a thought

Glenn McGrath