Lucid not stable before end of april

[Amedee Van Gasse (ub)]

On Thu, February 11, 2010 09:14, Knapp wrote:
>> Â  Â  Â  Â Well I see that the developers have given stable a special
>> meaning. I thought I was clear when I defined my stable as
>> never crashes now. Some writers seemed to have scary words
>> that some day I will get an update that will ruin my updated
>> alfa version system. It isn't happening.

That is correct. The word "stable" used in the context of software
development does not have the same meaning as in everyday language.

"stable" for a developer means that the "API" isn't in flux any more.
API = Application Programming Interface. It's a set of agreements between
two or more programs about how they should talk to each other.

It's like two people agree that they will always shake hands first when
they meet. The handshaking is their API. When a developer says that his
software is stable, he means that he has agreed that the handshaking will
be with the right hand, not the left hand or both hands.

What an API doesn't say, is that you have to take your hand out of your
pocket first. It's up to the program to decide how it should do that. If
you forget to do that, you have a bug.

>> Why does Ubuntu put
>> out the early versions?
>
> So people can help to find the fire bugs. This is the WHOLE IDEA of
> open source!!!!!!!!!!! Anyone can help write it, these are called Devs
> and anyone can help find bugs, these are often called beta testers or
> alpha testers. You are currently being an alpha tester by running
> alpha software. The hope is that when there is a problem you will
> write up a great bug report that the Devs can read, so that they can
> find and fix the problem. The more devs and the more testers there are
> out there with hopefully lots of differents systems results in more
> bugs getting found and squashed.

With the privilege of using early versions comes the responsibility to
report any problems. In a constructive way.