Re: [gentoo-server] QA or an unchanging portage tree?

[Joe Sleeper]

On Tue, 2004-02-03 at 15:36, Kurt Lieber wrote:

> If you were given the choice between:
>
> 1) A more robust QA process for the main portage tree or
> 2) A seperate 'server' portage tree that offered:
>    * only updated quarterly
>    * security and major bug-fixes off-cycle, but no other changes to the
>      tree
>    * guaranteed minimum life of all ebuilds in the tree
>
> Which would you find more valuable and why?
>
> --kurt

In my opinion both options, if executed in a manner that makes sense,
would help make Gentoo a better option for more people to use it in a
server environment.  

I love the way things are constantly updated, not having to wait for my
Linux distribution to release an upgrade in order to get the 'cool' new
packages (such as when Gnome or KDE release new versions).  Also the
fact that releases don't mean anything once the system is installed is
very nice - mostly for my desktop and laptop machines though.

For servers, I think the second option is a very good idea.  This would
make it easier for people to update their software for security's sake
without having to update world or pick and choose what to update (making
it easy for people to miss packages that should be updated because of a
serious flaw.

I do have a couple more thoughts that could be built onto #2:

1. Make it easy for people to be able to stick with certain older
packages that they may be required to use, such as Apache 1.x vs.
Apache2.

2. I don't know how difficult this would be (or how much sense it might
make to others), but maybe it would be possible for people not to have
to immediately upgrade to the quarterly release and still be able to get
the security and major bug fixes.  Possibly keep each quarter's release
for a year - 2004.1, 2004.2 and so on.   Maintain the three previous
trees that aren't current with the security and major flaw fixes and
retire them after a year.  (This is just an idea I just came up with
after reading Kurt's email, just throwing it out here to invoke
thought).

3. Maintain some sort of web page or something with the planned package
upgrades that will happen in the next quarter's release and what they
might mean people will have to do after it's upgraded (such as changes
in where files are located or major changes in config files).

I'll finish this email by stating that I *love* Gentoo and am glad to
see that it's always improving (I've just crossed the one-year mark of
it being the main distro that I use).

-- 
joe sleeper
freenode irc nick - jsleeper