fedora copying ubuntu's release schedule

[syxbit]

i think fedora has realized that much of ubuntu's success is because of its frequent release cycle (and updated packages)
so they're copying the APRIL & OCTOBER release cycle
i know this is a good thing, but i preferred it when they were out of sync, so i could keep switching between them, to always get the most up to date kernel :D

[igknighted]

I think the October/April release schedule is followed by almost all major distro's (Suse, Mandriva, Fedora, Ubuntu). There certainly are a few that are off (Gentoo is February/August in theory... tho they are really a rolling release distro), and a few oddballs that you never know (Debian, Slack), and of course most new distro's haven't settled in to a releasestable release cycle yet (PCLOS, Sabayon, Mint, Mepis, etc.), but by and large the big players release together. This is a good thing. It gives anyone working on code a deadline to get into certain releases and helps companies who want to release software for linux by keeping the versions of software similar from distro to distro. Might get a little boring for us in the meantime, but it also gives us a window to look at some smaller names that we might not otherwise try. SO I say its good all around.

PS, @ the OP... Why not just compile a new kernel each major kernel release? I would think that would be much easier then installing a whole new distro. Plus after you configure it once you can keep your old config file and just set the new configurations each time!

EDIT: Fedora has long been about "up to date packages", even more so than Ubuntu. They also upgrade the kernel as they go along (I think FC6, which was released very near to edgy, has 2.6.20 right now - compared to edgy's 2.6.17. I'm not sure as I am using F7... it might be up to 2.6.21 like F7). The issue for Fedora is the stability issues and 3rd party driver issues that this causes and the strict non open-source policy which causes newer users to have a more difficult setup.

[syxbit]

i agree, if most follow the same schedule, coders have a goal of aiming to be in the april/october wave of distro releases.

checking distrowatch shows that mandriva follows the april/oct schedule, but Suse doesn't, and Fedora hasn't up until now either.

as for mepis, they still use the 2.6.15 kernel!

as far as giving coders a goal for their releases, i'm not sure how likely this is.
i know beryl tried to get 0.20 out by ubuntu, but failed.
pidgin and thunderbird both missed feisty by just a week or so. I don't think either really was aiming for feisty either, just about their own program.
openoffice now has switch to a 3 month cycle that should be perfect for getting every other release in ubuntu. We'll get the feature update as opposed to the bug-fix update though....
alsa releases randomly too.

i wish there was a way of unifying stuff so linux coders in general have a goal for release in certain distros.
kinda of the way gnome does it. but that way, they'd be tied to gnome and not KDE.
never a perfect world!

[igknighted]

Indeed, good catch about Suse. It appears they have aimed for it in the past but they always delay. Perhaps switching to a yearly release is a good thing for them. After all, Suse has repo's you can add to keep up to date with nearly anything (OO.o, Mozilla products, KDE, etc.), so it suits the bleeding edge folks and delivers a more stable product too.

[downhillgames]

Well I for one can say I'm really excited about the switch in release times. To me Fedora has always been the "advanced playground" since everything is so cutting edge in it. It's nice to at least expect the release times to be on-point.

Fedora missed a few key things in their 7/Moonshine release that I've yet to try (the many tools for creating re-spins). Maybe some more stable releasing will help release those types of innovations on-time and what not, too =)

downhill



I'm really tired. Sorry for the bad grammar.

[LightB]

Good I'm glad they did. It doesn't matter which kernel they release anyways. I compile my own anyways because I use some patches.

[gamma]

It's good to see distros doing bi-yearly releases. Open source development is running rampant and you're missing out on a lot of features running a distro that's a year old. I personally don't think Fedora is as big as Ubuntu (I prefer apt), but I believe Fedora is making strides. I'm currently using Fedora and they have a pretty good default package selection and a stable desktop. I can say the same about Ubuntu too though, so it's just a matter of preference. I do recommend people check out Fedora's LiveCD though.