[CentOS] about new Centos SIG distro releases

Mon Mar 31 13:36:27 UTC 2014
Jim Perrin <jperrin at centos.org>


On 03/31/2014 08:16 AM, Phelps, Matt wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Jim Perrin <jperrin at centos.org> wrote:
> 
>>
>>
>> On 03/31/2014 07:28 AM, Phelps, Matt wrote:
>>> Initial reaction: Crap!
>>>
>>> One of the best things about CentOS, in my opinion, was not having to
>> deal
>>> with all the different RHEL builds/releases/whatever they called them,
>> and
>>> just having ONE distribution.
>>
>> This doesn't change. It's the core sig.
>>
>>
> But the current "core" distribution has KVM/libvirt, and all the desktop
> stuff, and apache, etc. etc, each of which sounds like it will be broken
> out into a separate "SIG."

No. The SIGs are community efforts where a newer or different version is
needed. Core stays core.

> Please, please don't do this. Let us do our jobs and pick what we need from
> the same install depending on what kind of machine we're installing.

This is exactly the intent. Right now there are a load of admins who
want or need newer versions of things, be it php, python, libvirt, ruby,
whatever. We're not changing up the core. We're trying to provide a
better way to get updated features if they're needed.

> I don't want to have to change our whole installation environment, which
> we're take years of work to get the way we want it, based on someone else's
> arbitrary rearranging of what's needed for "Storage" or "Virtualization,"
> etc.


You won't have to. Stick with core, and you'll be fine.

> 
>>
>>> So much for that.
>>>
>>> It didn't take long for Red Hat to get their mitts all over CentOS, huh?
>>
>> We were already doing this sort of thing with the Xen4CentOS build, and
>> the plus repo before the RH agreement. We're simply able to expand on
>> this type of effort now.
>>
>>
> Both of those are additions to "CentOS."  Please don't break up "CentOS"
> arbitrarily into separate "products" like Red Hat needlessly did. Let us
> pick and choose what we need easily.
> 
> The whole point of an "Enterprise " environment is to minimize the change
> so we don't have to re-tool everything.

Yep, and the "C" has been for 'Community', which has been a driving
force in this. Xen was in el5, and when it was dropped in el6 we had a
large hosting user-base who suddenly had no upgrade path to the new
version. By adding Xen support back in, we've provided a method for them
to update without re-tooling. We're trying to keep the need to change
minimal, exactly as you want.

> (Sorry for all the sarcastic quotes, but I'm upset. This is exactly the
> sort of meddling I was afraid of when Red Hat took over.)


This seems a bit "the sky is falling" to me. We're not changing what
we've done in the past. We're adding (entirely optional) functionality
to meet the demands of the community. You don't have to change a thing
if you don't want to.




-- 
Jim Perrin
The CentOS Project | http://www.centos.org
twitter: @BitIntegrity | GPG Key: FA09AD77