a plan for updates after end of life

[Horst H. von Brand]

Arjan van de Ven <arjan at infradead.org> wrote:
> On Sat, 9 Feb 2008 11:04:22 +0100
> Patrice Dumas <pertusus at free.fr> wrote:

[...]

> > Does this looks like a plan acceptable by the Fedora lead?

> > Opinions, comments?

> My first impression is... "ok so there's now a formal process, and the
> result is that there is no branch ever that uses this". The chances of
> finding sufficient capable volunteers for even the base package set
> is... near zero.

In calculus they called this number \epsilon ;-)

>                  I stress "capable" here, and with this I mean people who
> both have the time and the skill to track, evaluate and backport security
> fixes.  That is a non-trivial amount of time and skill *for each
> package*. Most people with these skills don't themselves use these older
> distros -> they lose interest fast.  Or in other words; I'm sure there is
> demand for this sort of thing, I just don't think there's sufficient
> volunteer supply...

There just seems not to be enough /real/ demand to keep it running for a
reasonable amount of time. The demand is more a "it sure sounds nice to be
able to run the same Fedora for 5 years, in case the versions in between
turn out duds", but very few really contemplate suffering such outdated
stuff; and in my experience people who run old versions are also the same
who don't ever apply any updates.
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                    Fono: +56 32 2654431
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