also, i still think there's a conflict with rawhide being
simultaneously:
- the proposed next release, and
- the source of really cool, new, bleeding edge stuff
it's not clear that these two categories represent the same thing. are
they supposed to?
Absolutely. Ok, rawhide is what is called a "development snapshot". These are new things which are being worked with for the next version, released to those who are interested in it specifically for feedback on the enhancements.
A good way to look at it is like this. Development of a Fedora release may look something like this:
^^^^^^^^^^^^/^^^^^^^^^^/^^^^^^^^^^^^/\
Each ^ is a rawhide release. Each /\ is a test release. You see, they are all the same product, the thing is that each rawhide release is a fix or a change, released to interested persons RIGHT THEN. This is most often nearly untested code.
Its all part of the process to the same product, not a separate product or any such thing. Rawhide is just a way for you to get the VERY latest in what the developers are working with for the next release version.
Are you using your machine regularly? Do you not want to deal with system instability or drivers not loading? Are you NOT looking specifically to help with development and testing? If any of these are true, you don't want a rawhide release, they aren't for you. Rawhide is specifically to grab the latest changes, buggy or not, for feedback and testing purposes.
Same process, rawhide is just individual "bump" updates on the way to "milestones".
--===============-- Wayne S. Frazee