On Fri, Dec 22, 2006 at 10:32:16AM -0500, Dmitriy Kropivnitskiy wrote:
> Basically, AFAIU, you get major version upgrades. For example, FC5 has
> GNOME 2.14 as the main Desktop. FC6 has 2.16.
> FC5 is not going to get 2.16. Ever. It will only get updates for minor
> versions.
I think what he's getting at is, why do big-bang releases instead of simply
continually releasing updates via an automatic mechanism such as yum?
This model has had its proponents over the years. Probably the biggest
reasons you have major releases are:
o A major release gives someone new to the product line a starting point
that isn't horrendously out of date. Ever have to reinstall a copy
of Windows XP from CD, then live through hours of updates?
o Some changes to the system are so major, affecting underlying
functionality, structure, etc., that they're simply too difficult or
complex to reliably handle as a dynamic update.
o Having major releases allows the update process to sunset support for
old versions of software. Over the years, having to detect and
handle every single version of a package that was ever released to
properly handle updates would become a nightmare. Add in dependency
detection, and, well...
There are other reasons, but these are the biggies.
Cheers,
--
Dave Ihnat
President, DMINET Consulting, Inc.
dihnat@xxxxxxxxxx
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