[OpenIndiana-discuss] Rolling release considered harmful

[Judah Richardson]

On Mon, May 3, 2021 at 11:22 AM Reginald Beardsley via openindiana-discuss <
openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org> wrote:

> I just finished running the graphic installer on 2020.10.31 and 2021.04.30
> ISOs.  It would be an understatement to say the results were not good.
>
> 1) The documentation mentioned on the first screen is missing as noted
> previously
>
> 2) The release notes button produces a "unable to display release notes"
> dialog.
>
> I selected "whole disk install" and took all the defaults. After the
> install completed I rebooted using the GUI installer.
>
> 3) The system reported "Non-system disk or disk error" with both releases.
>
> I am pleased to report that a default text install did properly configure
> the nVIDIA driver in 2021.04.30.
>
> I don't know when the GUI installer stopped installing the bootloader.
> While I could check 2017.10  and 2015.10, there's really no point. Git
> should tell the tale for anyone interested.  My concern is not who broke
> it, but that it is being released broken.
>
> The real issue is that releases are not being tested for even basic
> functionality.  We really should be testing for device driver issues, but
> first we need to get to first base.
>
> Someone coming to OI from Linux would quite naturally choose the GUI
> installer.  I shall leave the reader to ponder their likely reaction to
> "Non-system disk or disk error".  I suspect most would simply abandon OI
> entirely.   Not because they couldn't make it work, but because the
> distribution image is so unprofessional as to be embarrassing.
>
> OI *could* make most, if not all, of the Linux distros I've tested look
> bad.  Sadly the current status is the opposite.  The worst Linux distro
> I've tested makes OI look bad.
>
> So the overarching question is this:  What is the community going to do
> about it?
>
I'll keep using OI until <insert some criteria I haven't decided on yet
here>. Small reminder that not everyone has had your experience. Some of us
have gotten OI up and running and can live with the *status quo* even if
it's not our preferred state of affairs. Would I like to see things better?
Sure. Do I have the time or desire to do the work to make that happen? No(t
right now), I have other systems that do what I want and so the marginal
benefit *to me* of personally fixing the outstanding OI problems I have is
minimal (this is true of nearly every OS I run. For everything one of them
does badly, another one excels at that thing.)

You mentioned community testing in a previous email; I'd say that's what
everyone who's running the rolling release is doing ... because rolling
releases are raw alphas by definition.

FWIW I often find myself in a similar position when using FreeBSD: somehow
I keep encountering its less fun problems. But the community frequently
reminds me that most FreeBSD users don't experience the same issues.

>
> Reg
>
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