On Thu, 26 Feb 2004, Mike A. Harris wrote:
...
Test release of an OS snapshot, ie: "Fedora Core 2 test 1", is essentially a prebeta snapshot of the OS, which is very likely to be unstable.
In the past, there were private beta testers and approximately 3 "alpha" releases that were generally not ready for public consumption, but needed wider testing than could be done internally.
With the opening up of OS development, and creation of the Fedora Project, it was decided to make _all_ of the beta/alpha/whatever you want to call it releases public and open. The upside is that there would be more testers this way. The downside, is that people who voluntarily test the first few initial test releases without realizing that they are playing with fire, are likely to end up with very broken systems, as "test1" is a very first test, and is nowhere near "stable". The warnings in the installer should not be taken lightly.
and this is something that would have cleared up a *lot* of my confusion, since it makes perfect sense. but it does have one interesting consequence.
since, in the past, RH internally did some level of testing before releasing the first beta on the world, even that first beta was surprisingly stable. and that meant that, despite the graphic warnings that beta software might explode into flame, render you sterile or possibly EAT ALL THE CHEESE IN YOUR HOUSE!, a lot of gung-ho folks threw caution to the winds, backed up their systems, and just installed it anyway. and, barring the inevitable annoyances and broken pieces, things went fairly well and RH got a *lot* of bug reports from folks (myself included) that dived into the deep end.
but with the new release schedule, those warnings suddenly seem a lot more meaningful. it suggests that even those of us who want to jump right in might want to wait until -test2 before installing to use on a 24x7 basis and, until then, really have a separate system just for testing.
does it make sense to suggest that, in terms of stability, what used to be the first beta release might be equivalent to something like a -test2 these days? not a criticism, just an observation, since it gives me a much better idea of what i should be doing in terms of testing.
rday