Follow Up from "Let's Discuss Interim Releases"

[Vincent Ladeuil]

>>>>> Clint Byrum <clint at ubuntu.com> writes:

    > I actually think this is already how many server/cloud users use Ubuntu
    > right now anyway. Run the LTS as your core, encapsulate your custom apps
    > in containers/virtualenvs/rvms/etc.

Indeed. And this goes both ways: you can run a precise container on
raring as well as a raring container on precise.

Can we make this smooth enough that an app developer can ship a precise
version on raring to enjoy API stability in the container while still
running on newer versions until the newer LTS can be targeted directly ?
Or instead, deliver raring containers for precise with more testing.
Will it be simpler for app devs than just targeting all releases in a
PPA ? Both probably apply to different workflows/team sizes.

The same issue remains though, who test what ?

To me, the real question is identifying the various testing populations
and relate them to each release, whether you use a dev release or an LTS
with additional PPAs or not is directly related to the amount of testing
received/expected/accepted. 

After releasing bazaar for some years, I encountered a weird conclusion:
whoever uses bazaar (across all releases) is really running a revision
that was the tip of the trunk. Bug fixes on stable releases have been
minor. In the end, I wasn't testing before releasing, I was releasing
what has already been tested (across releases thanks for CI). I
perfectly realize that one package is not an OS, but there are some
similarities.

For any software, whatever is released *has* been tested. The question is:
how does that relate to me ? How close from my use cases/hardware were
those tests ? 

What this really means, IMHO, is that the "back of the crowd" attitude,
while understandable (and accepted) is just waiting to see if others die
in flames, but most of the time, they just dive happily in the water
(getting fresher and more fish ;).

Nevertheless, +1 on btrfs to rollback a broken upgrade ;)

   Vincent