Freenix
Freenix forum

Home » Community » General Info and Discussion » Upstream release dependency (How should lag in upstream releases be handled ?)
Upstream release dependency [message #50] Wed, 28 August 2019 04:07 Go to next message
rk4n3 is currently offline  rk4n3
Messages: 5
Registered: January 2017
Location: Albert Lea, MN
Junior Member
Freenix Ninja
Hi all,

In considering the recent post concerning the retirement of ConnochaetOS, I noticed that one cited factor was the lag in upstream release.

As we're all aware, a relatively unprecedented period of time between releases has us waiting for our next upstream. I'm curious about anyone's thoughts on how this should be handled moving forward.

The most obvious option would be to merely take what we're given, exercising patience/tolerance for any lag/delay.

I could certainly accept this option as practice, if it turns out to be "the best option" per deliberations. Still, I'm curious about whether anyone thinks other options might be better Smile
Re: Upstream release dependency [message #51 is a reply to message #50] Wed, 28 August 2019 06:08 Go to previous messageGo to next message
rk4n3 is currently offline  rk4n3
Messages: 5
Registered: January 2017
Location: Albert Lea, MN
Junior Member
Freenix Ninja
Here's just one example of an idea ...
We could do something similar to some other distros:

  • Have an LTS (Long-Term Support) release based on upstream's stable releases

  • Have a semi-rolling snapshot release based on upstream --current, perhaps semiannually
So, freenix 14.2 would be the latest LTS, the next LTS would be based on the next upstream stable release, and then we could start releasing semiannual snapshot releases based on --current at the time of release, and named like freenix 15.0.1, 15.0.2, etc.

If upstream goes another 3+ years without a stable release, freenix would have roughly 6 releases, keeping up with --current, while retaining the option for people to stick with the LTS if they want to.

[Updated on: Wed, 28 August 2019 06:16]

Report message to a moderator

Re: Upstream release dependency [message #52 is a reply to message #51] Wed, 28 August 2019 15:17 Go to previous message
connie is currently offline  connie
Messages: 28
Registered: January 2017
Junior Member
Freenix Ninja
I think it's a great idea, but it would definitely require us to build all new infrastructure, so that thing would have to have its own repo. That's a lot of extra work, but something to be considered at times like now, when theres's a significant demand for updated packages.

Another approach would be to identify the specific packages in -current with a lot of user demand (what are they today?), and push them into FXP, letting users basically stay with stable branch, and use FXP like a -current backports repo. In fact, I already did that once with the kernel, when Pat lagged with bugfix for some reason. Not only this requires like 100 times less work, but it also gives users the option of one-touch reverting to stable state, in case things go sour with new packages. Downgrading the entire OS is probably quite a bit nastier.

[Updated on: Wed, 28 August 2019 15:24]

Report message to a moderator

Previous Topic: R.I.P. ConnochaetOS
Next Topic: linux-libre-firmware
Goto Forum:
  


Current Time: Thu Mar 28 08:20:50 EDT 2024

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.00913 seconds