Distros

One of the problems faced by commercial software is that of release dates. If you have geared up for a ridiculously extravagant marketing campaign starting on a particular date, you had better have brought your product to market, even if it’s not ready – you can always fix bugs later (Service Pack can be translated as “what marketing didn’t give us time to do properly"). Open source software often prides itself on its “release when it’s ready” approach, even though this often results in frustrating delays. Debian’s slow and arduous testing process may mean we wait ages for the next release and it is out of date by the time it arrives, but you can bet your job on it being stable, as many sysadmins do.

However, Ubuntu shows us twice a year that it is possible to stick to a schedule (although they have had the occasional small slippage). All it takes is strong discipline and an autocratic leadership. Design by committee has its good points, but it is also good to have someone say “OK, that’s it, no more new toys for this release”. Nothing disrupts a release schedule more than “just one more thing” – leave that to Columbo.