Planning Dapper +1, The Edgy Eft 320
Christian Jensen writes "On the ubuntu-announce mailing list, Mark Shuttleworth announced the plans for the next Ubuntu release - 'The Edgy Eft', the successor to Dapper Drake." This release is being touted as both cutting edge (edgy) and containing several comparatively "young" software additions ('Eft' being a 'youthful newt, going through its first exploration of the rocky territory just outside the stream.') like Xen, XGL/AIGLX, and others.
Ah, I found them on the ubuntu wiki! (Score:5, Informative)
It's a long list!
Re:heheh (Score:2, Informative)
Actually you can get xgl and compiz from the dapper repos now. It's pretty cool.
Re:Almost panicked there... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Alphabeticism? (Score:3, Informative)
"For all of our sanity we are going to try to keep these names alphabetical after Breezy. We might skip letters, and we'll have to wrap eventually. But the naming convention is here for a while longer, at least."
Re:Alphabeticism? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I don't know if I understand/agree with Mark... (Score:4, Informative)
Not really. From day one with Dapper Mark has planned for it to be a higher quality release. For example, he plans to support it longer than the rest. Why did he do this? Well for one many people don't like an upgrade every six months. I talk to some people that think that Windows upgrades (like SP2) come around too quickly. The Dapper release is for these people. If the corporate world wants, it can skip from Dapper quality release to Dapper quality release (as such will be released every two years) while being supported the entire way.
A problem with Dapper is that "higher quality" also means "more boring." Ubuntu is meant to be on the bleeding edge, but with Dapper less risks were taken. Edgy will fix this problem and bring Ubuntu back to the edge once more.
Wouldn't it be smarter to have a "risk team" playing around for the next release while the current release is being polished so that when the rest of the team starts working on the next release there's already been enough time on it to make sure it is production quality?
There are many things needed to make a production quality Linux OS. Ubuntu is a slave to its release cycle- if the programs are ready when Ubuntu releases then it will be a good release. Dapper is more "corporate worthy" than say Breezy because when it releases it will have many landmark pieces of software in it - a non buggy OpenOffice 2, Firefox 1.5, etc. Mark can't change the release dates for all software used in Ubuntu, so some releases will just have to be worse than others for this reason.
Plus, making every release of equal quality will cost a lot more....
Re:What's in a name? (Score:3, Informative)
However, that simply makes your point.
I love answering questions about Ubuntu (Score:5, Informative)
The Dapper quality releases will be strongly tied to future corporate plans. Plus in every release announcement they will clearly state that the Dapper quality releases get extra long support.
Yet the overall quality of the other Ubuntu releases will never hopefully lower to a point where they are unusable by lay persons. I would hope that the kinds of people that a Dapper release was made for (IT managers) would be able to figure out which releases to use where.
Also, I didn't realize that ONLY this release was going to have the extended support. I thought it was from now on they were making releases that would get the longer support. So the in-between, risky, releases will use the breezy support model?
Every two years will bring a Dapper quality release. The way Mark has described it before, its as if the releases in between those two years are basically building up to these Dapper quality releases: [ubuntu.com]
Our current plan is that the Dapper Drake (Ubuntu 6.06 if we hit our June 2006 release date goal) will be the last of this first "set" of releases. So post-Dapper we have the opportunity to define a new "feel" or overarching theme. It would be unlikely to be... blue. But it might be substantially different to the current Human theme.
Each of these in between releases will get the same level of support as all the Ubuntus before Dapper.
I personally have been excited about Edgy long before it was announced. Once you get the hang of it, its easy to spot which Ubuntu releases are for you.
The first releases after the two year major releases will have changes in styles and will be very distinct and maybe a little crazy- just like Warty was when it hit back in the day. All the exciting things the major release had to skip during the year can be added to this release. Mark has already said that Edgy will bring a new color scheme- exciting!
The second release after the major release will be the best of the in betweens- the craziness of the previous release will be polished down some and the time when these releases will come (Spring) is after all the major releases at the end of the previous year. Hoary was really great for this reason.
The third release after a major release will be the most compromised- many new things might be dumped on this release so the Dapper quality release can use the release as development time for its more boring platform. Long before Breezy came out I was scared because it in a bad time of the year for a distro release (right before the new Open Office, Xorg and Firefox were released) and because it had to take on large bites (modular Xorg before Xorg was ready, GCC transition for PART of the system, etc.) to make life easier for Dapper. As a result Breezy seems to be the most buggy release (yet many of these problems - like floppies not working and an unstable OpenOffice- has been fixed post release).
Then we have another Dapper quality release and the IT managers of the world can pay attention again. Long live Ubuntu.