They are switching to Ubuntu instead of Fedora even though they expect there will be an annual OS update of Ubuntu required, the apt package management system makes a lot of the work to switch from our present tightly integrated OS + alternate versions of packages + additional packages to alternate versions and additional packages layered on a pre-installed system.
It is product focus, however that makes Ubuntu attractive to me and many at MIT. With Fedora and Enterprise, the two choices are three year old functionality, or bleeding edge functionality. Example: in November Fedora 8 came out with important laptop power management functionality, but it also shipped with a broken rewrite of NetworkManager, and an alpha version of BIND. Fedora 6 shifted to not getting any attention, and the clock to get off Fedora 7 started EVEN BEFORE FEDORA 8 FUNCTIONALITY WAS STABLE!
With Ubuntu, a single common code base is taken care of by different groups serving different clientele. Canonical Inc. will take money from corporate customers who need help managing systems or getting new functionality. Volunteers explore new functionality and move forward on the process of producing open source solutions. At particular points a particular version is flagged for longer term support, but the primary focus is not on exploring new functionality, or on back porting popular functionality to an ancient codebase tailored to customers afraid of change. It is simply: Produce a usable experience with a balance of stable code and new functionality. What Fedora-based spin has this focus?
-Bill ---- William Cattey Linux Platform Coordinator MIT Information Services & Technology N42-040M, 617-253-0140, wdc mit edu http://web.mit.edu/wdc/www/ On Dec 24, 2007, at 5:38 PM, Jon Stanley wrote:
On Dec 24, 2007 4:19 PM, Jeroen van Meeuwen <kanarip kanarip com> wrote:I don't think Ubuntu LTS gives you the latest and greatest unless you upgrade, does it?I think that's the whole point.Same with CentOS; although it might be supported longer then you aregoing to use it, whenever you feel you want newer software you upgradeto the next release. Meanwhile, it's stable.Correct - however security updates are backported to the "old" versions of the software.The Fedora Project moves in with EPEL, Extra Packages for EnterpriseLinux, perfectly suitable for a CentOS machine and with the same releaseand 'support' cycle.Not entirely sure what you mean here. I think what was being called for was a release whereby it's "supported" (with security updates, etc) beyond the current 1 year, however perhaps not as much as the 7 years that RHEL is supported. However, as Matthew said in the e-mail that came in as I was writing this, there was little interest in Fedora Legacy when it existed. What makes us think that there's more of a demand now? It's either the short, bleeding edge release cycle of Fedora as we know it, or the long release cycle of RHEL. Both serve different purposes. -Jon -- Fedora-marketing-list mailing list Fedora-marketing-list redhat com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list