I'll try to revive a discussion related to ticket #567 [1] and a previous test list thread [2] (I decided to start a new one to make the subject clearer and avoid the confusion from the initial email).
During F29 development, we couldn't agree which repos should be enabled by default in anaconda for installation (that doesn't affect repos enabled in the installed system), and whether it changed since previous releases or not. Either way, anaconda team asked us to provide our opinion on this. We need to say which repos we'd like to install from during the Branched cycle.
Note: There are no stable updates during the Branched cycle, just main repo and updates-testing. Stable updates repo is empty.
The possible options are:
a) use testing updates repo during the whole cycle up until Final RC1 (which would disable testing updates)
This has the upside of easily detecting a broken package (preventing installation or first boot) entering testing updates. However, if that happens, you can't run the installation in its default configuration, which makes things awkward especially towards the end of the cycle (that exactly caused all this discussion [3]). With this approach, you also have a fully-updated system right after installation as long as fedora repos default to updates-testing enabled (around Beta), but have extra unwanted testing updates once fedora repos default to updates-testing disabled (between Beta and Final).
b) don't use testing updates at all during the whole cycle
This makes the install process more stable (testing updates can't break it). The installed packages more closely match what the composes consist of (the composes never use testing updates, but occasionally they might include a few extra packages on top of what is currently stable, if QA requests it). After Beta, you will not end up with a system that contains testing packages, but the testing repo is disabled (that might throw some people off, if they don't know they should use dnf distrosync instead of dnf update).
The downside is that before Beta, you'll need to install the system and then also update it, to have all the latest packages (including testing updates).
c) make anaconda use the same set of installation repos as are currently enabled by default in fedora-repos
This is a combination of the above. Anaconda would try to mirror the default repos also for installation. Depending on the implementation, the default repos can be either baked in during compose time (so if the particular compose was created when updates-testing was enabled by default, it would always use updates-testing, even when installing at a much later date), or it could decide dynamically at runtime (but that I assume would be much more difficult to code, and I don't expect anaconda devs to be happy about this). Both implementations can be seen as problematic in a way.
My personal opinion is that I can see very little value in having updates-testing enabled during installation. The improved stability and reliable behavior (always the same approach, installed systems always in a correct state) win it for me here. That means I'm very much in favor of option b).
There are other changes that can be discussed to improve the experience for specifically QA. For example we could ask anaconda devs to include an updates-testing repo option in the Installation Source spoke that could be used to easily enable updates-testing during installation, but that would disappear in Final RC composes. But those are slight life improvements which shouldn't really affect the major decision above, I think, and we can talk about them afterwards.
Thoughts?
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