[CentOS] CentOS 5.4? anyone?

Thu Oct 15 15:02:54 UTC 2009
Gilbert Sebenste <sebenste at weather.admin.niu.edu>

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009, Drew Weaver wrote:

>>     Just relax and wait, this is a _volunteer_ based project. Want a release
>>     date? Go pay for RHEL.
>>
>>
>> This response is just as annoying as the request for an update.
>>
>> -- j
> +1
>
> Annoying and rude.
>
> ----
> This might be why the Linux community as a whole gets such a bad rap.
>
> -Drew

This whole thread and these answers are uncalled for. All of them, except 
for the original above at the top.

We know that CentOS releases are 4 weeks, plus or minus a few, after the
release of the upstream OS.

Questions of "When it will it be released" are fruitless when, on the 
CentOS main site, they have been clearly answered. 4 weeks, give or 
take a few, with updates on Twitter.

If they are late because YOU think they are, what are you doing to help 
them? The testers have their hands full, and now they must handle flame 
wars, and be discouraged by people lobbing fireballs at them because their 
free OS hasn't been released "on time", according to your liking.

Might I remind everyone that 5.4 was released, in part, a WEEK after it 
came out...remember the security updates? Those were released because 
they didn't affect the functionality of the OS. So in effect, you do have 
some of it on your system already!

Please reconsider what all of you are saying here. I want it out just as 
much as you do...and with some simple investigation, one can find out that 
it's due out in 4 weeks or afterwards, and a simple "tweet" or message 
that we are two weeks behind or something should be fine. I don't care for 
progress reports, graphs to show how things are coming along. That takes 
time away from doing the important work. And I have gotten those updates
fine on Twitter.

Now, could they be better advertised? Is that flawless? No, but nothing 
is. But with simple one or two-line messages that "we're on track", or 
"give us a few more weeks", it should be more than sufficient for you. 
And I've seen that on their Twitter updates page. Not perfect, but still 
an excellent way to see that they're working on it.

Daily/weekly bugging is only going to make people mad, cause friction, and 
a frustrated response like on top which will, obviously, offend some 
people. But if you want it THAT bad, switch to RHEL, or another Linux 
flavor, or Windows. The principal of "you get what you pay for" gets 
blown out of the water with Linux, and by the CentOS team. We have no 
right to be frustrated if it is not on a schedule we want it to be on, 
and certainly not if we aren't helping, or even contributing to the 
slowdown of the release data because of squabbles like this. Sure, I 
wanted it yesterday. And if I REALLY wanted it yesterday, I'd have paid 
for RHEL entitlements instead.

Until then, your security fixes are out (except for a few late ones),
and 5.4 is syncing to the mirrors. On time. Thanks, CentOS development 
team...for those who are very grateful for what you do. I'm patiently 
waiting to see the fine work you've done!

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Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
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