[GRASS-dev] Re: please review: draft announcement for future 6.3.0 release

[Hamish]

Maris Nartiss wrote:
> There are really a lot of different bugfixes in 6.3 in different
> areas. Developer activity in fixing old bugs has been really amaizing
> if compare with some time a go. Thanks to all of You! Maybee 6.3 will
> not have lots of new features, but it will have lots of bugfixes, and
> that's really important for endusers.

All important bug fixes are backported to the 6.2 branch as well. So the
latest releasebranch_6_2 in CVS will be the most bug free version of
all. That isn't to say it will be nicer to use versus 6.3 (e.g. won't
include new & smoother GUI features), but 6.2.x should cause the least
problems.


> I like better Gentoo approach. Or look at R how they manage
> stable/unstable problem. I don't say that we have to follow, but
> Debians approach (use as old software as possible) isn't only one and
> right way.

You are right, Debian's is not the only valid model. It's just the one I
work with ;). Without getting into a big thread about it, Debian/
stable's approach is better described as "use the best tested software
as possible". The thinking is that known bugs in well tested software
from yesterday is better than unknown bugs in flashy new software. But
of course every distro has the right to pick where they want to sit, and
every user can pick the distro that is best for them.

My point of view is somewhat biased towards the needs of the DebianGIS
project, so pepper to taste. [WRT the version in Debian: it happened
that the first well tested & bug free version of the 6.2 line (6.2.1)
was released just before the Etch package freeze and the Debian
maintainers decided it was too close to give the new grass package
proper testing before then. It was decided it was better to keep the
6.2.1 stable package for Etch in the DebianGIS repository on Alioth.
It's a shame, but hard to argue with.]


Hamish