[Sussex] Re: Gentoo problems.

[Thomas Adam]

 --- Steve Dobson <steve at dobson.org> wrote: 
> Steve

> Commercial organisations suffer from a controlling factor that just
> isn't
> a problem with open groups: marketing.  Debian has always said that
> a new release is only made available when it is ready, and not before.
> This has led to the two year gap between releases.
> 
> The kernel group have also "suffer" from the "it will be read when it's
> ready" syndrome.  2.4 was a long time in coming.  2.6 was originally
> meant
> to be short (about six months IIRC) - it wasn't.

You have to remember that there are two different release models at work
here. One is that distros such as Debian and gentoo and the work that goes
into them is voluntary, and such means that sometimes the development
cycle is intermittent. This is by the very nature both a design feature
and a good thing, even if it is slow.

The other model is that commercial projects are often being developed by
peple whom are getting paid, so they have a responsibility to get it done
on time.
 
> When a commercial organisation's marketing departments announces a
> release
> date, that date is fixed.  Development time almost allays overruns.
> Therefore there are two things that can be done to meet the release
> date.
> 
>   1). Drop functionality that doesn't work, or
> 
>   2). Release buggy code.

Both is what happens.

-- Thomas Adam

=====
"The Linux Weekend Mechanic" -- http://linuxgazette.net
"TAG Editor"                 -- http://linuxgazette.net

"<shrug> We'll just save up your sins, Thomas, and punish 
you for all of them at once when you get better. The 
experience will probably kill you. :)"

 -- Benjamin A. Okopnik (Linux Gazette Technical Editor)


	
	
		
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