Distributions
Beyond Firefox 4.0: Handling an accelerated development cycle
Firefox 4.0 has been delayed a number of times, but looks to finally be on the verge of release. With 4.0 out the door, the Mozilla developers will be pursuing a quarterly release cycle that would see Firefox 5, 6, and 7 released by the end of 2011. For Windows and Mac users, accelerated releases just mean they'll see more frequent updates. For Linux users, and for distribution vendors, quarterly releases may pose a few challenges.
Many have complained that the six-month release cycle followed by Ubuntu and Fedora is too brisk, but the proposed Firefox release plan will be even more aggressive — averaging a major release each quarter. This means that it's likely that Mozilla will release two major Firefox updates during a distribution development cycle. To be sure, the releases will not be as significant as the Firefox 4.0 update. Mozilla plans to shift the way that it approaches major releases so that there will be fewer features per release, but continual improvements.
This is fine for users who get their updates directly from Mozilla, but it looks likely to pose a challenge for Linux distributions and users who want to run current Firefox releases as part of the distribution. Most distributions have a policy of providing only security updates for packages after the distribution has shipped.
Firefox has already been an outlier in this regard. For desktop Linux releases, Firefox is a key component — and Linux desktop users typically don't want to run an aging or obsolete browser. Firefox's major releases often don't fit well with Linux distribution release cycles — particularly since Mozilla has been known to slip release dates by rather a lot. Firefox 4.0 is a prime example of this, having originally been scheduled for an October release.
In consideration for users, distributions have made special exemptions to update policies by working with Firefox betas during the development cycle and then shipping updates to bring Firefox up to the final release. How will they handle major bumps to Firefox that happen at a much faster pace?
Right now, users on released versions of openSUSE, Ubuntu, and Fedora have the option of installing major Firefox updates from add-on repositories. The openSUSE Project has its Mozilla repository, which allows users to track major updates for stable openSUSE releases. (This should also be suitable for users of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.) Users can also track openSUSE Tumbleweed and receive the stable updates for pretty much all of the major packages, if they're so inclined. Ubuntu currently offers a PPA for new versions of Firefox, and Fedora has the "Remi" repository.
These solutions are fine for users who are familiar with advanced package management. (LWN readers may not consider adding a PPA or RPM repository "advanced," but many users would.) But all of these require users to seek out and add package repositories, which may have been OK when Firefox major releases were spread out by more than a year — but not so much when they become a quarterly affair.
How will the major distributions handle this? Fedora is unlikely to issue major Firefox updates after release, at least for the time being, through the regular update channel. Fedora's Christopher Aillon, who is responsible for the official Firefox packages, says that this is due to the number of packages that depend on the Firefox platform (XULRunner). He adds that "speeding things up won't help that
", but that the situation may change as more packages depend on Webkit instead of Firefox/XULRunner "
but it's not on the immediate radar.
"
What about security fixes? Aillon says that it might involve more backporting of security patches, but "it will be nothing new to us. We know the codebase very well and I'm confident that Fedora's packages will remain stable and secure.
"
As for openSUSE and future stable releases, it's not decided yet how the project will handle Firefox updates. openSUSE's Wolfgang Rosenauer says that "I haven't discussed these plans deeply yet since I was busy
wrapping up Firefox 4 for 11.4. Actually I guess the whole Mozilla project was [wrapping up Firefox 4.0] and most of the planning and discussion will take place from now on.
"
According to Canonical's Jason Warner, users can continue using the PPA to grab major updates of Firefox. As long as the version of Firefox shipped with an Ubuntu release is receiving security fixes, Ubuntu will stay with that release. However, Warner says that Ubuntu will ship major releases of Firefox as an update if Mozilla stops supporting the earlier release. For example, "We will continue updating FF 3.6 for 10.04 users as long as Mozilla supports that release (typically 6 months after a major release). Once Mozilla stops supporting 3.6 we will update to the latest stable release, whichever number that is at the time.
"
It looks like Red Hat will make newer releases of Firefox available for
desktop/workstation users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Actually,
the company has been handling updated releases of Firefox for some time in
its older versions. I pinged Red Hat PR and they responded that Firefox
3.6.x is already being shipped for RHEL 4, 5, and 6. According to Red Hat
the plan is to "stay as close as possible to the latest Mozilla
release, while at the same time ensuring we provide customers with a stable
and secure web browser.
"
This is largely uncharted territory for distributions and Mozilla. Google's Chrome browser and Chromium project have been doing rapid-fire releases for some time, but have largely bypassed the distributions. Google provides its own packages for Linux users, and only Ubuntu packages Chromium in the default repositories. It would be nice if Mozilla provided native packages for Linux users as well, especially since Mozilla only offers 32-bit packages as the official build for Linux users.
If Mozilla manages to keep to its schedule for 2011 it will be interesting to see how it shakes out for distributions and how they deal with the new development cycle. It will likely require creating some exceptions to policies on shipping major updates rather than just security releases, or perhaps rethinking how releases are handled in general.
Brief items
Distribution quotes of the week
Campaigning periods are some of those few moments when people sit down and discuss publicly project vision, goals, "politics", etc. A campaign with a single candidate will diminish the attractiveness of posing questions to the sole candidate and, as a consequence, the interest of the debate. More generally, recent elections seem to show that the more the candidates, the more interesting and useful the debate.
... furthermore, I'm not ready to give up so easily the possibility of increasing my free time starting from April 18th :-)
In the interest of full disclosure, I think I should mention that the message you're reading now was sent through Gmail, which I accessed on a TMobile-locked BlackBerry Bold 9780 (connected over WiFi to a Linksys router), running v6.0.0.285 of the BlackBerry OS. Portions of the browser are copyright 4thpass.
CentOS 4.9 released
CentOS 4.9 is available for i386 and x86_64 release of CentOS-4.9. This release includes all updates through March 1, 2011. "This is the last expected set of changes to add new functionality to the CentOS 4. We will continue to provide security updates and bug fixes for CentOS 4 until its End-of-Life scheduled for February 29, 2012." The project has also given the 1 year notification for the end of life for CentOS 4.
Announcing the release of Fedora 15 Alpha
The Fedora 15 "Lovelock" Alpha release is available for testing. "The Alpha release contains all the beefy features of Fedora 15 in a form that anyone can help test. This testing, guided by the Fedora QA team, helps us target and identify bugs. When these bugs are fixed, we make a Beta release available. A Beta release is code-complete, and bears a very strong resemblance to the third and final release. The final release of Fedora 15 is due in May."
Foresight Linux 2.5.0 RC
Foresight Linux 2.5.0 release candidates are available in GNOME, KDE, and Xfce editions.Gentoo Linux LiveDVD 11.0 released
For those who would like to play with Gentoo but don't feel like spending a few days compiling it: the 11.0 LiveDVD release is now available. There is a wide variety of software available; see the announcement for details. "Desktop environments and window managers include: KDE SC 4.6, GNOME 2.32, Xfce 4.8, Enlightenment 1.0.7, Openbox 3.4.11.2, Fluxbox 1.3.1, XBMC 10.0 and more."
Some MeeGo architecture changes announced
The MeeGo project has announced some changes in response to "the events of the last few weeks". In particular, they are moving (back) to SyncEvolution from Buteo, moving contact storage to Evolution Data Server, and making some changes to the security framework. "
In the long-term, we will re-evaluate the direction we are taking with MeeGo security with a new focus on *End-User Privacy*. While we do not intend to immediately remove the security enabling technologies we have been including in MeeGo, all security technologies will be re-examined with this new focus in mind." We will probably see more of this type of change as MeeGo figures out how things will go in Nokia's absence.
Scientific Linux 6.0 released
Scientific Linux (SL), which is a re-packaging of Red Hat Enterprise Linux geared toward scientific users, has released SL 6.0. "SL is a Linux release put together by Fermilab, CERN, and various other labs and universities around the world. Its primary purpose is to reduce duplicated effort of the labs, and to have a common install base for the various experimenters." A brief look at SL 6.0 is available at the Symmetry magazine breaking news site (which is, in turn, pulled from the Fermilab Today site). From that article: "
For more than 12 years, Fermilab has supplied thousands of individuals in the scientific community with the operating system that forms the foundation for their exploration of the universe's secrets. The Linux operating system produced at Fermilab enabled the laboratory, and other high-energy physics institutions to build large physics data analysis clusters using affordable, commercially available computers."
Slackware 13.37 rc1 released
Slackware 13.37 release candidate 1 has been announced for x86 and x86_64. From the March 9 changelog entry. "Hey folks, I think it's time for Slackware 13.37 (hopefully this helps make up for our lack of code names) release candidate 1! After a lot of testing and consideration, we've decided to go with the recently released 2.6.37.3 Linux kernel which seems to work best for X, contains support for Speakup, and looks like a better kernel branch to be using as we move forward. Please test so we can have a stable release soon. :-)"
Ubuntu Natty Alpha 3 Released
Ubuntu has released the third alpha for "Natty Narwhal" aka 11.04. Some of the new packages in this release include LibreOffice 3.3.1, Unity 3.6.0, Linux Kernel 2.6.38-rc6, and Upstart 0.9.
Distribution News
Debian GNU/Linux
Debian wins at the Linux New Media Awards 2011
The Debian Project won two awards this year's Linux New Media Awards, presented during CeBIT. The first was for "Best Open Source Server Distribution" and the second for the project's "Outstanding Contribution to Open Source/Linux/Free Software".bits from the DPL: squeeze aftermath
Debian Project Leader Stefano Zacchiroli has a few bits about Debian's relationship with the FSF, talks and interviews, Debian vs DebConf, and several other topics. "Wheezy is open, meaning you can now break your pet packages :-) (not). If you haven't yet discussed with other fellow developers your amazing plans for Wheezy, I suggest you stop reading this mail, go start a *huge* thread on your favorite Debian development mailing list to discuss those plans, and get back once you're satisfied with the result."
Fedora
Update on FUDCons in 2011
Jared K. Smith has some FUDCon (Fedora Users and Developers Conference) announcements. "Planning is in full swing for FUDCon Panama in May, and it's time for the FUDCon planning team to begin evaluating subsidy requests. The deadline for the first round of travel subsidies is the end of the day (UTC time) on March 14th, and the FUDCon planning team will be meeting on March 15th to evaluate those requests." Future FUDCons: the bidding for FUDCon EMEA 2011 will close after March 15th and bidding is now open for FUDCon North America in late 2011 or early 2012.
Other distributions
Welcome to the new Jolicloud!
Jolicloud founder Tariq Krim takes a look at the future for Jolicloud and the soon to be released Joli OS 1.2. "Following up on our previous blog posts on the new direction for Jolicloud and the Joli OS 1.2 feature list, we'd like to share with you some of the features that are available in the new Jolicloud desktop and Joli OS 1.2."
Newsletters and articles of interest
Distribution newsletters
- Debian Misc. Developer News #26 (March 10)
- DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 395 (March 7)
- Fedora Weekly News Issue 265 (March 2)
- openSUSE Weekly News, Issue 165 (March 5)
Linux Leaders: Debian and Ubuntu Derivative Distros (Datamation)
Bruce Byfield covers a wide variety of distributions that descend from Debian. "One of the oldest derivatives is Knoppix, which is also a pioneer of Live Media -- CDs or DVDs from which you can boot a computer without accessing the hard drive for secure computing or for demoing software. For many, Knoppix remains an essential tool, especially as a rescue disk. In fact, Knoppix is so popular that it has evolved its own derivatives."
Linux Leaders, Part II: Fedora and Red Hat Derivative Distros (Datamation)
The second part of Bruce Byfield's look at Linux Leaders covers Fedora and Red Hat derivatives. "Fedora, the successor to Red Hat Linux and perhaps the most influential distribution prior to 2000, is consciously produced as the source for other distributions. In many of its releases, it is among the most innovative distros, releasing new software developed in co-operation with upstream projects. Development is more or less continuous within its Rawhide repository, with stable releases produced every six months."
Kororaa GNU/Linux is back (ITWire)
ITWire covers Kororaa GNU/Linux, a little known distribution that started out as an easy way to install Gentoo, and has more recently switched to a Fedora base. The third beta of Kororaa 14 was recently released.Yocto and OpenEmbedded Combine Forces: What Does It Mean? (Linux.com)
Over at Linux.com, Nathan Willis digs a little deeper into the combination of Yocto and OpenEmbedded. "Thus, this week's announcement does not amount to a significant shift in the underlying technology, but it does formally align two projects that already had similar goals. As a result of the merger, Yocto will now support an "OpenEmbedded Core" that can serve as a foundation for building an embedded Linux distribution. The OpenEmbedded Core consists of base-layer recipes and files, on top of which the developer would stack other components, including other Yocto utilities, hardware-specific drivers, and custom user interface or application code."
openSUSE 11.4 articles
openSUSE 11.4 is scheduled for release on March 10, just after press time for LWN. In the meantime the openSUSE news team has articles about GNOME on openSUSE 11.4, openSUSE 11.4 and KDE and the inclusion of LibreOffice.Shuttleworth: Next after Natty?
No doubt everybody was anxious to know what the next Ubuntu release would be called; Mark Shuttleworth has now ended the suspense. "What we want is something imaginative, something dreamy. Something sleek and neat, too. Something that has all the precision of T S Elliot's poetry, matched with the 'effable ineffability' of our shared values, friendship and expertise. Something that captures both the competence of ubuntu-devel with the imagination of ayatana. Which leads us neatly to the Oneiric Ocelot."
Thomas: That's it, we're quitting
Matthew Paul Thomas posts on the "Canonical Design" site about Canonical's intent to eliminate the "quit" button in applications. "The 'Quit' command in applications today is a relic from the days when the original Macintosh had no hard disk and couldn't multitask. Modern applications have made this command increasingly annoying. Fortunately, though, modern PCs have also made it increasingly unnecessary. Mobile operating systems have, for the most part, eliminated the 'Quit' command completely. In Ubuntu, the messaging and sound menus will help us do the same."
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