On Sun, Apr 06, 2008 at 07:17:27PM +0200, Alan DeKok wrote:
Jos Vos wrote:
Although sometimes I would also like to have a newer version of something, this *does* pay back in overall stability and API/ABI compatibility throughout the OS's life time.
It pays *them*. It doesn't pay *us*.
It pays back to the customers. They want a stable OS environment, not one where the software interfaces may change at every update.
They have a *great* business model: sell "long term support" for packages, and push most of the questions onto the public forums such as this list.
The only way to solve is is to "forbid" long-term-support type Linux distros. And due to the facts that there is a need for that distros and that we live in free (software) world, this won't happen. Sorry...
Their customers should have HUGE warnings in all of the documentation, saying "THIS PACKAGE IS YEARS OUT OF DATE."
People running a 7-year supported OS *do* know (well, they should) that their software cann be up to 7-8 years old. -- -- Jos Vos <jos@xos.nl> -- X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV | Phone: +31 20 6938364 -- Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Fax: +31 20 6948204