[BozemanLUG] You Tube video on Linux Desktop (on regressions)

[Scott Dowdle]

Rob,

----- Original Message -----
> I agree with the take that we should not have to upgrade every 6
> months (Ubuntu). I also realize I probably have very little reason to
> do so other than my constant desire for the next cool thing. But, to
> me not upgrading is a "work around" for something that should be a
> given. If your wireless card worked in the last version it should in
> most cases work again. Same can be said for many other issues that
> crop up for users with each new install.

Regressions are definitely something the kernel developers and distro makers try to avoid.  If they are made aware of them and a fix is available, they almost always fix the regression.  To add with that it is always a good idea to get involved with your preferred distro(s) and try out the development releases... at the very least looking for regressions in hardware functionality.  Report any problems as early as possible so that they get fixed before the official release comes out.  Sometimes there are valid reasons for regressions (abandoned drivers that can't easily be made to work with kernel changes) but most of the time it is just a "we didn't know" issue.

I realize that not everyone has the time or desire to get involved with the testing of development releases of either the kernel or a distro.

As is obvious, this is more of a problem with distros with 6 month release cycles... because they have less time for testing and feedback.  One of the bullet points of the Fedora project with regards to target audience is they look for users who are willing to participate in whatever ways they are comfortable.  Canonical has a target audience of mainly non-contributors.  I think it is amazing how much they both get done in 6 months time.

I'd guess that if Windows or Mac switched to a 6 month development cycle we'd see all kinds of previously unseen bug/compatibility issues.  Either that or they'd have to greatly scale back on the number of changes they make each release.

> If with every MS release audio or wireless adapters suddenly stopped
> working, what are the odd's they would still have 80 or 90% of the
> market?

Actually that *IS* quite common on Windows... well perhaps not as big of a percentage... and probably more with printers and other less important devices... but they do have this concept of legacy hardware.  We have previously discussed how hardware makers work more in unison with Microsoft because their marketshare is so big... and since Microsoft has a much longer release cycle and more QA than most Linux distros... they do find more of the bugs and get them fixed... at least with drivers anyway.  But with each major release there is a significant amount of hardware Windows abandons.

Another point is that I think Linux is much better with regards to having multiple arches and drivers not caring if they are on 32-bit or 64-bit.  On Windows I've heard there are all kinds of driver issues on the 64-bit side.

The Mac's answer of course is to support only a fraction of the hardware that Linux and Windows supports.

TYL,
-- 
Scott Dowdle
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