Re: SEUL: Re: Trial or no trial

[Thomas Molesworth <thomas@bass.almac.co.uk>]

On Mon, 30 Jun 1997, Randy Heineke wrote:

> On Mon, 30 Jun 1997, Thomas Molesworth wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 30 Jun 1997, Randy Heineke wrote:
> > 
> > > 2. The resources required will dillute efforts on more critical work.
> > > 
> > >    It seems that we will need something like trial install to do testing
> > >    on a broad spectrum of users.  Several iterations of testing will be
> > >    required before a product is shippable.  The earlier the testing, the
> > >    less the requirment for resources to refine SEUL.
> > 
> > Trial install shouldn't appear until full install is fully functional and
> > looking good, _and_ is so secure you can build your house on it.
> Like you are out of town and you have your SEUL CD and want to use a
> nearby PC?

That's a good thought - we could employ people to walk the earth with SEUL
CDs, installing Linux on every computer they come across...

> Thomas, I sure don't like being on the receiving end of lousy code.  So I
> understand that you only want to release stable code. Trial install
> sounds like a very handy way to test on users on their machines.  It
> may also have some attraction after testing.  Are you saying that we
> shouldn't even use it for test purposes?  

It depends on how you define trial install - if it's a plain vanilla version
of SEUL that requires work to cut down on the full install, then I think
that it would be a bad idea, because it would draw attention away from the
development of the main SEUL package.

If you mean an easy-install, easy-remove basic system to get SEUL up and
working _while it is being developed_, then a trial system is necessary -
trial in this case would mean full system 'cos the full system would only
have the basics at that point.

OTOH, A "trial" install as in a "demo" of Linux should not be released until
the rest of the distrib is in perfect working order (as proved by a lot of
testing).

The SEUL distrib should only contain the most basic packages (no httpd, etc)
until the installation process is working as well as possible - this would
be the full system, and it would have to be easy to uninstall as well as
install.

> I somtimes get these notions that terribly difficult to dislodge (like
> testing with trial SEUL). Maybe you can help me what other models for
> testing were you thinking of?

The only testing that I can think of is to get as many people as possible to
install the pre-release version and report back on stability, interface
comments, etc.

--
Thomas Molesworth            (thomas@bass.almac.co.uk)

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