[rescue] GNU != Unix (was: PC v. PeeCees? (was: IBM hard

[Koyote]

>Debian refusing to incorporate xf 4.2 because someone doesn't
> > like it. Of course- debian is rapidly becoming an "historical" linux
> > os with the ever increasing lag time.)
>
> Respectfully disagree.  IMHO the Linux world needs a distribution that
> actually attempts to do feature freezes.  In many cases I would far rather
> have a known software set (with known idiosyncrasies) than a late-breaking
> constantly updated mix.  When you maintain a large number of systems in
> active production, avoiding feature creep is vital.

Well, now, we've got two seperate issues here- one, the lag time is getting excessive for the product. Seriously, woody should have gone release a while back. Whether you read that as 6 months or a year, I can't say- but it's really late for a 2.2 linux to be "nearing release sometime in the indefinite future"

My complaints about adding newer version of software- or not adding because someone has a spat with a coder or whatever- is in *unstable*. What this means is, debian is refusing to *develop* the XFree side of the distro. == YOu use XFree 4.1 forever. I'd understand that if this was a stable release, or a stable candidate, even. (maybe, 4.2 is not a major revision, it basically adds support for a lot of hardware.)

> 
> I am more impressed with the Debian release strategy than that of most
> other Linux distributions.  Lag time is very acceptable to me unless I
> have a vital need for a critical feature, in which case I will take the
> responsibility to add and test it myself.

I used to find the debian model very useful. Having the recourse to maintain your previously used packages with a good solid tree for updating via dpkg was nice. now it's limiting. One of Debian's main strengths was in the package management. That's totally blown the moment I have to take something as fundamental as X and hand compile/break packaging/ or build, test, stabilize my own package. Smaller apps, sure. 

Or maybe Debian doesn't want desktop users anymore, just institutions?

-Christof
> 
> -James
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