There was an announcement from MS that they are going to go to a faster
release cycle. The plan was that a new version of MSO, and other software
from them, will be released every 3 or 4 months instead of every 2 or 3
years.
As for LO being released with "bugs", most software seems to have bug
fixes every so often.
As for the fast release cycle, we do not want our users to wait months and
months for the newest version with the bug fixes, improvements of included
features, and new ones. We do not have staff to test each LO release on
every OS and system variation, plus all possible combination of document
usage. We release the "early adopters" versions 4.1.0 through .2 or .3.
But the "conservative" and least likely to have issue versions starting
with .4 or .5. This is in the Release Plan documentation. For all users
that want the "most stable" and "least buggy" version[s] of LO, most of us
tend to recommend to our "clients" that they start with version .4 or .5 of
a line and not an earlier one, unless there is a major need for some new
and improved feature.
So for the most conservative users, I would go with 3.6.7. The next lever
of user, like most of them, I would have then use 4.0.4 or 4.0.5 when it
comes out. I would not offer most of my users the .0 through .3 versions
of LO for their use in the home or office. I may try the .0 or .1 versions
myself, though.
I am working on the 4.1.0 version of the NA-DVD .iso file to be uploaded
to the DVD download page[s], as soon as I know if or when the portable
version of it comes out. Yet, I will not hand these 4.1.0 DVDs out to my
list of users, home or office ones. I will be waiting for 4.0.5 for my
next round of handouts, unless I need some before then.
I started programming in the 1970's, on DEC PDP/11 systems. Saw the
introduction of the PCs to the market. Used the first Mac computer. I
earned 2 degrees in mainframe programming, one business and one science,
then later one degree in the network technology area. I never worked for
any "big name" companies like Cisco, but I worked in various fields. I was
forced to retire after a debilitating set of injuries and my 2nd and 3rd
strokes. Been "retired" since the around 2004.
As for the need to "beat" MS, they are slowly loosing ground all by
themselves with such marketing flops like the Surface RT tablet. People
were not buying their newest versions of MSO, so they started the idea of
renting it instead, telling people it is a better idea. But, if you miss a
payment or stop paying all together, you will loose you office suite. If
you use their online version, you may loose even more, like your online
documents.
Most governments and agencies are looking towards open source to fill
their needs, before they look into buying proprietary software package
solutions. Look to all of the press releases on which big company, city,
or country, is not switching over to open source office suites, mostly
LibreOffice at this point. MS is really loosing ground in Europe, as far
as I have read. The USA is still not moving towards open source as fast as
other countries, but this market is something MS does not want to loose.
We are just so big and profitable for MS, they will do anything to keep
the USA under their corporate "thumbs".
But the is movement in the private sector of the market. Homes and small
offices cannot afford to keep paying MS's blood money year after year. I
stopped at MSO 2003. I still have to deal with Windows 7, but I prefer
using Linux for most of my work and desktops.
Sure, LO can have issues from time to time. But, unlike the "big boys",
we are open with our issues and will do our best to fix the problems our
users tells us about. As I said before, that is why we have a faster
release cycle so we can offer the bug fixes in a timely manor. To be
honest, you do not see this as up-front with MSO. They do offer fixes
every so often, but their system involves patching the installed packages.
LO is not designed that way and is too "internally integrated" to just
replace a piece of coding in a small library file. So LO needs to have the
entire version replaced with a new one to get the fixes and improvements to
the user. I have no issues with that. Some people just do not want to
think about upgrading their packages after they are installed. So we have
the "conservative" releases so they can avoid the issues in the "early
adopters" releases.
.
On 07/27/2013 05:51 AM, Amit Choudhary wrote:
Hi Tom,
I have been programming since 1987. I have all my degrees in computer
science/networking. I have worked for companies like Cisco systems,
Juniper
networks and have turned down offers from companies like Google and
Microsoft for one reason or other.
This whole software industry is going in the wrong direction. Actually, by
now we should have been done by all the software (all the necessary
software developed and installed and used, no bugs, etc.
We need to beat Microsoft because we do not want to pay for Office suite.
The best way of doing this is to release stable versions only and this can
be done by increasing the QA cycle period.
I do not release buggy software unless it has been approved by management.
And I have not released any software that's gonna hurt the customer even
if
I have to get into discussions with managers, directors, etc.
This whole idea of releasing software frequently is a scam, because work
doesn't get done properly in a small time window. No one gets any time for
innovation and everyone is just interested in the release. And in the end,
the software dies down because the frequent release does not fix things
properly and introduces new bugs and over time all these quickfixes kill
the product.
THERE IS NO DEMAND FROM CUSTOMERS FOR FREQUENT RELEASES. THE DEMAND IS
FROM
PEOPLE WHO ARE SOFTWARE ANALYSTS AND THEY WANT SOMETHING TO DO AND HENCE
THEY WANT FREQUENT RELEASES. IT IS A BIG SCAM.
I use around 5-6 external softwares and if everyone is releasing something
every month then it becomes a headache to me.
RELEASING ONLY TWICE A YEAR IS VERY FOOD.
THE BIGGEST RISK OF RELEASING FREQUENTLY IS THAT ORIGINAL PROBLEMS ARE NOT
SOLVED PROPERLY AND QUICKFIXES MAKE MANAGING THE SOFTWARE COMPLICATED AND
IN THE END THE DEVELOPERS GIVE UP AND THE PRODUCT IS SHELVED.
AND ALL THIS HAPPENS WITH PAID SOFTWARE TOO.
Amit
On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 4:07 PM, Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
Hi :)
I think with Base it's better to stay with older branches. The 3.6.7
might be better. if the 4.0.3 works for you then stick with that.
Sadly there are still not many devs working on Base. It's not flashy
enough!
Regards from
Tom :)
______________________________**__
From: "la10497@iperbole.bologna.it" <la10497@iperbole.bologna.it>
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Sent: Friday, 26 July 2013, 10:31
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] 4.0.3
Unfortunately, the "3rd digit rule" doesn't work as goog as expected...
I use report builder in base, 4.0.3.3 version. Download 4.0.4 and
report builder no more works (crash in opening).
thanks anyway for developers work, I remember this is a free sw, at
the
end....
Federico Quadri
Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk> ha scritto:
Hi :)
That 3rd digit is roughly the equivalent of "Service pack". So
usually the higher it is the more stable it is. Of course even just
bug-patches and fixes can sometimes introduce unexpected problems
that might not get caught by QA.
The best answer, imo, is to keep a very stable version that you
are happy enough with on all the machines you look after especially
ones that have limited access or that you can't reach easily. Then
on 1 machine find some way of being able to test-drive an occasional
beta-test versions before it gets released. Preferably do about 1
per branch. The problem is that things you might care about deeply
might not even be getting used by other people at all. So it's only
you that might notice. So if you didn't test-drive then the problem
might never be found. Also it's better to do your testing on a beta
release rather than a full release because it's during the early
beta stage that the most devs are the most focussed on the 1 single
version and trying to solve the most problems quickly. Also it's
when the fewest other people are making bug-reports.
There are various ways you could make sure you have access to 1
version for use for work that has a dead-line and another version
that you can just use to try things out and make sure it all works.
Regards from
Tom :)
______________________________**__
From: Amit Choudhary
<contact.amit.choudhary.india@**gmail.com<contact.amit.choudhary.india@gmail.com>
To: "users@global.libreoffice.org" <Users@global.libreoffice.org>
Sent: Friday, 26 July 2013, 3:35
Subject: [libreoffice-users] 4.0.3
Hi,
I was using 4.0.2 and then I downloaded 4.0.3 but 4.0.3 is not
as stable as
4.0.2. So, now I am downloading 4.0.4.
I am more interested in stable and feature rich (optional)
software rather
than frequently released software.
Stablility is very important because a non-stable software /
software
having many bugs results in loss of time and frustartion.
Amit
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