[lubuntu-users] State of PPC

[Narcis Garcia]

The .1 release is the most important, because it's a stabilization of
LTS ISO release.
Next point releases introduce new kernels & GUI and this can introduce
new bugs to discover.


El 22/07/16 a les 22:59, Walter Lapchynski ha escrit:
> As you can see from the page on [PPC][1], the architecture has only
> community support from Ubuntu. Lubuntu has been trying as much as we can
> to support this, but the fact of the matter is that we have no
> developers on our team that can actually help with PPC bugs. 
> 
> The best you can hope for is that kernel developers (mostly, the issue
> is with drivers) might have some interest in fixing bugs. However, with
> only community support, that's unlikely. Most of the focus on PPC has
> been on the server side of things, where graphics just don't come into play.
> 
> My estimation of things is that Lubuntu on PPC mostly works, given a few
> caveats. All we need to do to release PPC is for all of the test cases
> to be completed successfully (regardless of whether or not there are
> bugs) and that marked on the QA tracker for the final testing of each
> milestone. If we don't have that done, Canonical will not let us release it.
> 
> PPC was what brought me originally to Lubuntu, so there's a special
> place for it in my heart. Having an OS make that old hardware work was
> very refreshing and introduced me to the real power and mission of Lubuntu.
> 
> However, I haven't ran PPC in a long, long time. That being said, I'm
> not of much help. We rely on the community of users to help out. When I
> don't see testing happening in the community, it makes me think that I'm
> not the only one that's neglected their PPC machines.
> 
> The reality of the situation is that there has been much talk throughout
> the Ubuntu community over the past few years about getting rid of i386.
> If that happens, I can't imagine that Canonical keeping PPC. With that
> in mind, I think the end of PPC Lubuntu is coming regardless of what our
> feelings are.
> 
> Furthermore, the Lubuntu Team is a small one and we often lack the
> capacity to do the things that we need to do. PPC is just stretching us
> even thinner, and into an area few of us really have the experience,
> knowledge, resources, or time to deal with.
> 
> That said, I'm inclined to suggest we start the process of removing PPC.
> We managed to release an LTS, which is the only version we even bother
> with PPC on. All we would need to do is ensure that all the point
> releases for Trusty and Xenial get published. That would put us out
> until about August 2018.
> 
> I think ultimately this will be better for the team. Most importantly,
> though, I think it will be better for the PPC users that I fear we can't
> really support and who we often leave with a frustrated experience.
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> [1]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPC 
> -- 
> @wxl | http://polka.bike
> Lubuntu Release Manager & Head of QA
> Ubuntu PPC Point of Contact
> Ubuntu Oregon LoCo Team Leader
> Ubuntu Membership Board & LoCo Council Member
> Eugene Unix & GNU/Linux User Group Co-Organizer
> 
>