I think they mean the 18 month lifetime that each openSUSE release gets (support, updates etc…). It’s a 8 month cycle for a new openSUSE release to come out.
On 2011-01-02 21:06, ah7013 wrote:
>
> swerdna;2272891 Wrote:
>>
>> BTW robin_listas & mmarif4u: it’s an 8-month cycle, not 18 (or did I
>> miss something).
>
> I think they mean the 18 month lifetime that each openSUSE release gets
> (support, updates etc…). It’s a 8 month cycle for a new openSUSE
> release to come out.
Correct.
Also notice that the two cycles do not match.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
Yes I can see how it was better with a 2 year (24 month) lifetime.
Evergreen would be great – maybe 5 years cycle.
Better would be evergreen plus 1 year release cycle for openSUSE
Best would be evergreen plus 1 year release cycle for openSUSE plus 2 years support for openSUSE.
That’s probably commercially unrealistic.
On my, too.
See also on openFATE:
Create an open SLES
https://features.opensuse.org/306982
Make openSUSE releases with more life time than 18 months.
https://features.opensuse.org/310963
Regards
pistazienfresser
Knurpht wrote:
> I’d like to see an LTS version of openSUSE as well. YTLYK
and i hope they will produce a stable LTS before i’m pushed off of 10.3!
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
Programming: a race between software engineers building bigger/better
idiot-proof programs, and the universe building bigger/better idiots.
So far, the universe is winning. Rick Cook
At one point I was using SLED 11, but I decided to go back to Opensuse 11.1 and am a happy user of 11.3 currently. I just created a VMWare session for 11.4…will see how it goes; I think the cycle should be on a 9 month basis…kinda like a pregnancy!
Thanks pistazienfresser for the link, i already voted for this some time ago.
It’s time to vote there to show our support for LTS releases(who are interested in LTS).
@swerdna: ah7013 is right, we were into lifetime of a individual release.
Just voted for this feature 
For links and information about Evergreen / Long Term Support (LTS) see also in the latest openSUSE News:
openSUSE News : openSUSE finished 2010 big (January 3rd, 2011 by izabelvalverde ) > Introduction and paragraph “Evergreen”
(linked also by the forumsadmin - Brainless Posting Bot - in Thread: openSUSE finished 2010 big)
Regards
pistazienfresser
> Last I have read official distro notes openSUSE is not cutting edge as
> they point to Fedora for such a distro :P. I know what You mean,
> however, and I know this is why we are using CentOS or Ubuntu server or
> Debian at work. It would be great to see openSUSE LTS but I don’t think
> there is high demand for this.
Probably more demand than you would think.
> I know of people that were using openSUSE, on servers and workstations,
> and dropped it when Novell switched to the 18 month cycle. SLES wasn’t an
> option, so they went to debian or whatever.
Still using OpenSuSE on three or four servers here.
Yes it’s a pain with the endless upgrades, but honestly as a server
there is no better distro in the ‘free’ realm. The pain you get up front
with the upgrade cycle is offset by the ease of use and stability. The rest
of the distros always seem unfinished with glaring omissions that require
serious hacking to get into, what I would classify as a usable state. Guess
I’m just spoiled on OpenSuSE’s out of the box readiness.
We tried to ask this for years on end and the answer was always “No”.
Technically and legally speaking you could;
- Buy one license of SLES
- Rip out all the Novell branding and activation system.
- Rebrand it as “openWHIP”
- Distribute it and patches via mirrors.
You could even demand that Novell give you the sources of all patches (if you are the owner of the SLES license) and re-distribute them without Novell branding.
You may well be right but then again You know how stubborn some admins can be and how unenthusiastic they are about upgrades and “distro switching” is something not present in their vocabularies 
Best regards,
Greg
On 2011-01-03 18:36, glistwan wrote:
>> Probably more demand than you would think.
> You may well be right but then again You know how stubborn some admins
> can be and how unenthusiastic they are about upgrades and “distro
> switching” is something not present in their vocabularies 
Precisely.
An admin used to openSUSE would be forced to switch to something else with
an LTS. With a longer lifecycle openSUSE that would not be case and he
could stay with openSUSE. Ie, Not switch 
I mean.
I use openSUSE for my personal computer. If I have to install one
professionally, I would prefer choosing openSUSE (or SLES), being what I
know more. But I could be forced to something else (because 18 months is
not enough), another distro, in which I’m not an expert and would have to
fight my way. I might not get the job.
Once I do that, if those people want an enterprise version, again it would
not be SLES, but whatever the other distro has.
Who looses? Novell.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
> An admin used to openSUSE would be forced to switch to something else with
> an LTS. With a longer lifecycle openSUSE that would not be case and he
> could stay with openSUSE. Ie, Not switch
For the record, I tried to switch for the very reasons cited, but I ran away
screaming after trying the leading contenders. Guess I’m a glutton for
punishment putting up with the upgrade cycles, but the alternative of using
any of the others was even less compelling.
> Who looses? Novell.
Uhmmm, errr…Attachmate.
With my having typed the above confession, it appears now one of the first things the EVERGREEN project may do as part of their 11.1 maintenance will be a kernel update to 2.6.32 (?) or some other kernel version newer than the 2.6.27 currently in 11.1. Hence my selfish interest in EVERGREEN is no longer remaining a selfish interest, as the utility to me may likely be even less (it was already small as EVERGREEN is initially planned to be server focussed, with no desktop support).
Still, I don’t have to update any kernel version, so I still hope that if an 11.1 EVERGREEN is established/survives/continues, it will possibly encourage packagers of 3rd party apps NOT to drop 11.1 support precipitously.
Well that does it for Evergreen for me oldcpu. If it won’t have a DE then I’m not interested. No sour grapes here, I just need a DE because I’m not skilled enough to do everything from the CLI.
I can’t see the point in becoming that skilled just to run my little old Dell optiplex gx270 server. Never skips a beat, currently 11.1 Gnome.
I think I did not compose the wording in my post well.
Everygreen will not delete the desktop environment, and it should be compatible with the existing 11.1 desktop environment, … at least for the initial period. Its just that the desktop software (KDE, Gnome, Xfce) will not be maintained with security updates, bug fixes, etc … I suppose eventually there is a risk that a security fix on the server side could break something on the non-maintained desktop side, but thats just speculation on my part. And to me that is the risk (together with security risks in an unmaintained desktop KDE, Gnome, Xfce).
However given I am in a situation where I either use 11.1 with openSUSE-11.1 Linux, or I do not use Linux at all on this laptop (but rather use an unmaintained winXP) I chose 11.1 over XP, and I would rather use an unmaintained 11.1. Hence I’ll take what little benefit I can get from Evergreen.
Point noted.
I have 11.1 Gnome on my laptop (I switched that laptop from KDE to Gnome because my wife dislikes the 11.1 KDE wireless connectiveity, but she really likes the Gnome wireless inmplementation 11.1)
Since the OSS and Non-OSS (and the frozen Update as of 1-Jan-2011) will be kept on a repository as part of Evergreen, I am reasonably confident that if Evergreen does break some desktop functionality, I will be able to roll back to the basic OSS/Update combo.
Thanks for the clarification oldcpu. It’s a pity there aren’t the resources to do an Evergreen properly, DE and all.
I suppose one day I will have a problem with my 11.1 Gnome because I can’t reinstall it or repair it if/when a problem arises that needs a repo.
But that will never drive me to use LTS Ubuntu LOL as a server for my tutorials and cooking frolics LOL.