Another end-user view of showstoppers etc

[Alex Cockell]

Hi folks, 

First of all - I am your putative end-user.  I bought my Thinkpad R61i
from Linux Emporium with standard 8.04 Desktop preinstalled (off
Canonical's repos - not a downstream version like Mint or Dell's own),
and only use software out of Canonical's official repos.  I'm also going
to be VERY nervous when it comes to a major version upgrade, to the
point where I might end up buying a new laptop if replacing the OS
didn't go swimmingly.

In fact, during a phone conversation with LE, they generally recommend
clean reinstalls for major OS upgrades.

It's therefore obvious that I'm an LTS-LTS user, and would be too scared
to step away from that - although some laptops in LE's range have had to
have the most recent regular release put on them as earlier versions
wouldn't start or notice all the hardware.

Ubuntu is becoming more known by the mainstream - we end-users just want
machines that *work*.  Might some slight changes into how certain
enhancements are introduced be an idea?

For example - is new hardware support regularly SRU'd back into the
current LTS release, after decent QA?  Or is it the case that if there
was hardware that was newer than the release level (eg if I bought a new
lappie and managed to get a restricted level of functionality with
Hardy..) I would have to wait a year for a new component to start
working?

But it's scary to see showstoppers (or what we users would see as
showstoppers) going into a Gold release, rather than spinning a revised
RC.  The last thing Canonical needs is for Karmic to be its KDE 4.0,
considering all the bad press that caused.

Maybe the idea of the 6-month releases being advertised as "major
development milestones" is one to consider.

All I am saying is please don't let Lucid break my machine when I come
to upgrade to it around July next year...

Just thoughts from one of your user community.

Alex Cockell

-- 

Alex Cockell
Reading, Berks, UK
alcockell at eclipse.co.uk