Re: New releases query

On 03/31/08 11:39, Artnut wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> This has flummoxed me quite a bit. Some Linux flavors like Ubuntu, Fedora 
> and others keep releasing their new versions every six months or so, much 
> unlike Windows. Ok, let me clear am not a troll here and neither a M$ fan 
> and am using Outlook Express to post this. But what really is the need for

> such frequent releases? Does this prod Linux users to change over to the
new 
> release or new flavor? While the enormous efforts of the open source 
> community is highly appreciated, the question is why aren't the patches or

> upgrades released as it happened with WinXP SP2.

What would the windows patch system look like if you included Office
(which is already optionally included), Photoshop, a video editing
suite, a suite of compilers, web server, email server, dns server,
java, a few dozen games, and also gave you a choice of web browsers
and email clients?  Depending on the distribution, patches are also
released regularly - take a look at Red Hat Enterprise.  You have
support for a specific version of the OS for a number of years through
patch support.  At the other extreme are distributions such as Gentoo
which doesn't have versions as such but is kept up to date though new
releases of individual packages on a fairly continuous basis.

Do you really want to run a 7+ year-old OS that has had only two service
packs released in that time period?

On 03/31/08 11:52, ray wrote:
> On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:09:54 +0530, Artnut wrote:
> 
<snip>
> 
> BTW - I understand Linux distributions, I don't understand Linux
'flavors'.

'flavors' is a term that has been around for a couple of decades that
was used to describe the different Unix distributions.  Applying the
same term to Linux is a natural progression of the language.  It's not

On 03/31/08 13:47, ray wrote:
> On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:06:34 -0400, Douglas O'Neal wrote:
> 
>> On 03/31/08 11:52, ray wrote:
>>> On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:09:54 +0530, Artnut wrote:
>>>
>> <snip>
>>> BTW - I understand Linux distributions, I don't understand Linux
>>> 'flavors'.
>> 'flavors' is a term that has been around for a couple of decades that
>> was used to describe the different Unix distributions.  Applying the
>> same term to Linux is a natural progression of the language.  It's not
a
>> difficult concept to grasp.
> 
> "flavor" to me, would imply something I could appreciate - I
could see rpm 
> as opposed to debian package management as a 'flavor' - I could see the 
> desktop environment approaching a 'flavor' - but to speak of distributions

> as 'flavors' seems nonsensical to me.

The differences between the default installs of Redhat ES5 and Debian 4
are on the same order as the differences between SunOS 4.x and SGI Irix 
V4.x.  For the CLI user they are almost identical as both were 
BSD-based.  However, the desktop environments were generally different
and the administration tools were quite different.  "Flavor" was the
terminology adopted at the time to encompass the differences between
the large number of Unix variants.  The differences in flavors could
be dramatic (DEC Ultrix vs. AT&T SVR4) or subtle (RiscOS/Motif vs.

On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:36:25 +0000, Unruh wrote:

> The only problem comes when some distrbutions like Mandriva stop issuing
> security updates for old releases. But then get something like Redhat
> Enterprise which continues supporting a release for many years.

Mandriva Corporate Desktop and Corporate Server have five year security
and bugfix maintenance lifespans.  Mandriva consumer releases have
lifespans similar to Fedora releases.





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On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:09:54 +0530, Artnut wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> This has flummoxed me quite a bit. Some Linux flavors like Ubuntu,
> Fedora and others keep releasing their new versions every six months or
> so, much unlike Windows. Ok, let me clear am not a troll here and
> neither a M$ fan and am using Outlook Express to post this. But what
> really is the need for such frequent releases? Does this prod Linux
> users to change over to the new release or new flavor? While the
> enormous efforts of the open source community is highly appreciated, the
> question is why aren't the patches or upgrades released as it happened
> with WinXP SP2.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Arty

For example, Ubuntu 7.10 -> Ubuntu 8.04 is more like installed updates or 
a service pack than it is like xp -> vista i.e. the changes are mostly 
updated versions of included programs. Also, developments happen with 
Linux. What, for example, REALLY changed in xp -> vista?

You will generally find that version upgrades on modern Linux systems now 
happen pretty much seamlessly - my laptop, for example, has been upgraded 
from Ubuntu 6.10 (original install) to 7.04 and 7.10 - online, seamlessly.