Re: [gentoo-dev] GLEP 19, reloaded (again)

[Chris Bainbridge]

On Tuesday 10 August 2004 19:33, Dylan Carlson wrote:
> Bottom line, "Enterprise Gentoo" would consist of whatever is in those
> profiles, which means they are thoroughly tested, supported.   People can
> use packages not in the profile at their discretion, perhaps locking
> versions in /etc/portage.   However packages don't get the same treatment
> & testing unless it's in an enterprise profile, and hence they aren't
> supported the same.
>
> We need to discuss the kinds of profiles we'd like to create (for different
> roles)  ... e.g., workstation, firewall, webserver, fileserver, cluster,
> etc.  This would, I believe, fit into the Installer project without any
> extra effort.

Ok I've been following this thread for a while and have a few observations and 
a cheeky proposal. Observations:

* I don't believe gentoo has many developers who are interested in supporting 
"old" software. It just doesn't scratch the itch.

* We don't have the resources to backport security fixes either. Upgrading is 
not an option for many enterprises, they want backports. Someone mentioned 
grabbing fixes from other distros... fine, but what if the versions differ? 
What about major non-security bug fixes?

* A 1 year support cycle isn't long enough for enterprise users.

* Redhat has the resources to run enterprise support. They do backports and 
bugfixes. For years.

* Redhat is the standard for enterprise linux (if you want oracle, eda 
software etc.). Many companies don't even test on anything else. I have a 
stack of commercial chip design software here, and all of it is redhat only.

So heres the cheeky proposal... make a "redhat" release. Follow redhats 
release cycle, and match their versions. Use their backported fixes. 
Commercial software will work. Bugs will be fixed. This is the power of open 
source.

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