Why aren't the monthly snapshots official releases?

[jhsu802701]

So far, official releases have taken place only once a year. Thus, someone who downloads and installs an official release may have up to a year's worth of updates to install, and that could take hours.

I'm pleased to see that monthly snapshots are available to save time on post-installation updates. That way, someone who downloads and installs the latest snapshot won't have to make more than a month's worth of updates, and this should take just a few minutes. Why aren't these monthly snapshots official releases? Why can't the future monthly snapshots be versions 16.1, 16.2, etc.? Windows had Service Packs between major releases. Ubuntu LTS and Linux Mint have *.1, *.2, and *.3 releases.

[Adrian]

That's an idea, I didn't consider snapshots as anything special is just the regular release with latest packages from the repo, there's no change to any configuration file and usually there are no changes, only the things that come from the repo. They are also build with mx-snapshot tool not with the official build script, they are pretty similar but there are some subtle differences.

[jhsu802701]

Having minor version releases would not only benefit users but MX Linux and the Linux community in general. I like the fact that Debian Stable offers periodic minor releases every few months.

Having multiple releases each year means that new users would get to see an even more polished version of MX Linux from the get go. Having more releases would really signal a message of continuous improvement and make a splash. Also, having more frequent releases is a better strategy in general for software development. You'll know the idea is a big hit in the Linux community when other distros copy it.

When will development begin on the Debian Stretch version of MX Linux? I'm thinking that a good time to get started would be during the freeze, which is scheduled to begin on February 5th. Start off with alpha releases of MX 17, keep improving it, make beta releases, and keep improving it further. If all goes well, MX 17 can be ready for its first official release just days after Stretch becomes the new Debian Stable.

[dolphin_oracle]

Having minor version releases would not only benefit users but MX Linux and the Linux community in general. I like the fact that Debian Stable offers periodic minor releases every few months.

Having multiple releases each year means that new users would get to see an even more polished version of MX Linux from the get go. Having more releases would really signal a message of continuous improvement and make a splash. Also, having more frequent releases is a better strategy in general for software development. You'll know the idea is a big hit in the Linux community when other distros copy it.

When will development begin on the Debian Stretch version of MX Linux? I'm thinking that a good time to get started would be during the freeze, which is scheduled to begin on February 5th. Start off with alpha releases of MX 17, keep improving it, make beta releases, and keep improving it further. If all goes well, MX 17 can be ready for its first official release just days after Stretch becomes the new Debian Stable.

mx development will start in earnest after the stretch version of antiX is ready.

[jhsu802701]

mx development will start in earnest after the stretch version of antiX is ready.

That seems awfully late. How much overlap and collaboration are there between the antiX Linux and MX Linux teams? When will antiX Linux start working on a Debian Stretch version?

[dolphin_oracle]

mx development will start in earnest after the stretch version of antiX is ready.

That seems awfully late. How much overlap and collaboration are there between the antiX Linux and MX Linux teams? When will antiX Linux start working on a Debian Stretch version?

there is a lot of overlap. and since mx is based on antiX, we need it ready before going too far. As to development, I suspect development is going on already.

[anticapitalista]

When will development begin on the Debian Stretch version of MX Linux? I'm thinking that a good time to get started would be during the freeze, which is scheduled to begin on February 5th. Start off with alpha releases of MX 17, keep improving it, make beta releases, and keep improving it further. If all goes well, MX 17 can be ready for its first official release just days after Stretch becomes the new Debian Stable.

Debian devs say that squeeze will use a stable 4.10 kernel. There isn't one yet available (only rc builds upstream from kernel.org) so there is no hurry. Typically a Debian release is several months after the 'final' freeze. I predict Debian 9 to be ready October/November 2017.

[Adrian]

Having more releases would really signal a message of continuous improvement and make a splash.

I'm afraid that we'd try to make too much splash with too little effort, the snapshots take 10 minutes to build (maybe 20 for both 32 and 64 builds), I just boot to LiveUSB and do an apt-get update && apt-get upgrade and then take a snapshot, I don't think that warrants much splash. I mean I like the idea to keep MX in the eyes of the public and have Distrowatch news, but I doubt in general it's a good idea to make a big fuss about snapshots.

That being said the one coming in a couple of days will be more important because it will have the Debian 8.7 update and also all the fixes we made to our packages from the release. I will let other people to decide how this snapshot will be announced.

[Jerry3904]

Maybe we might want to announce the start of a new series of monthly snapshots.

[Richard]

I really appreciate the Monthly and update my Ez2boot USBs after Adrian's snaps go up; and with new snapshots of my own 32 & 64 bit after dist-upgrade'ing them.

The support reasoning for recommending the official release is responsible, but I always use a Monthly for any
Install from scratch, so to speak. It saves me keeping
an archive of 32 & 64 bit updates.

Recommend that all reviewers use the latest monthly for review. But that's just my opinion.