"For much of its history, Debian has been the major noncommercial, philosophically free distribution. Now, as Debian developers and users have deserted the distro for Ubuntu, does Debian have a purpose any more? Debian 4.0, which was released this week, represents a collective effort to answer that question. The philosophy behind the release is best summarized on the home page for the Debian on the Desktop subproject, which states, 'We will do everything we can to make things very easy for the novice, while allowing the expert to tweak things'."
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Member since:2005-07-24
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Etch is a awesome release that shows debian has taken a big leap and I expect the next release will continue on that trend!
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Let's think about that:
Released late?
Check.
Release delayed due to infighting?
Check.
Year old Gnome?
Check.
Seven month old kernel?
Check.
Promise to release earlier next time?
Check.
Lot's of hooplah surrounding the release, celebrating what a glorious new release it is?
Check.
Looks like the same old Debian to me. ;-)
Member since:2006-01-01
Released late?
Check.
Depends on how you look at it. The initial/preliminary target date for the Etch release wasn't met, that's true. But the general plan was to release Etch about 18 to 24 months after Sarge and, regarding that general schedule, Etch was successfully released on time.
Release delayed due to infighting?
Check.
You shouldn't believe all the rumours that you hear. Etch was delayed due to technical problems (kernel, installer) that had little or nothing to do with the incident of infighting, which some bloggers and columnists loved to blow out of proportion.
Promise to release earlier next time?
Check.
AFAIK, the general schedule for the Lenny release will be exactly the same that it was for Etch: 18 to 24 months after the previous stable Debian release.
Year old Gnome?
Check.
Seven month old kernel?
Check.
Sarge was very outdated when it was released and Etch suffers from that in some areas. But Etch is definitely a much better start for Lenny than Sarge was for Etch.
Lot's of hooplah surrounding the release, celebrating what a glorious new release it is?
Check.
Well, Etch is a major improvement over Sarge, so there is reason to celebrate. Don't you agree?
Member since:2006-06-19
Released late?
Release delayed due to infighting?
Year old Gnome?
Seven month old kernel?
Promise to release earlier next time?
Lot's of hooplah surrounding the release, celebrating what a glorious new release it is?
Looks like the same old Debian to me. ;-)
I think you already got a good retort so I will just touch a few quickly....
First, if you cannot see the difference you obvisouly are not a debian user.
Not released late - just over the PROPOSED release date. Still a big improvement considering that Debian does not hand-pick 5000 packages to stick in a warehouse but provides all 18,000 packages and states they will work.
In-fighting is a thing to be celebrated - it means nobody has total control and is a REAL community effort. It is a series of check and balances and group commitment that whatever has to be argued over is WORTH arguing over and that we will get past it, have a few beers and get-er-done! Debian does not become the plaything of one or two individuals but a collective plaything of everyone that wants to be a part of it.
Seven month old kernel. Okay. And. To call something STABLE and mean it - it has to go thru a period of testing and has to be used. All the software is older in the stable release - it cannot be called stable otherwise. If another distro uses the term stable because they were able to build and install it - that doesnt say much about stable USAGE.
What promise to release earlier? It is a goal to refine the process and make releases as quickly as possible and reasonable but certainly not guarantee a release every six months or anything. You must be used to those distros that constantly release to keep the users trying the latest/greatest/newest/coolest and promising that the next release will fix the problems and be even better. Debian releases have to meet a standard, not just build correctly.
It is the same old debian - we aren't perfect but we will constantly strive to be better. The etch release is a huge leap in that regard. And as stated, it is not the a final destination, it is a clear sign that Debian is far from dead and has taken a step to make the "universal" part applicable to new users as well.
Edited 2007-04-15 14:31
Member since:
2006-06-19
I thought it was a great article and overall Etch is a awesome release that shows debian has taken a big leap and I expect the next release will continue on that trend!
Kudos and Bravos!