[olug] CentOS 6.0

[Rob Townley]

i am sure CentOS could use more automation, but does Redhat fully
publish the development and testing environment and log files?  Redhat
probably does not build directly from source rpms, but more than
likely builds directly from their source code management system.
Should be basically the same, but i wonder if Redhat actually tries to
build their stuff from the source released to the public.  Seems
everytime i have ever compiled a package, there is at least one or
more dependencies that have to be installed for a successful
compilation and install that are not documented at all.

Bugs in Anaconda caused a cascade of problems.  Since Anaconda is the
bootstrap installer for the OS, this was a big problem.  An entry on
the CentOS mailing list said that RedHat was not going to release a
full patch set until (6.1 6.2?).  Maintaining binary compatibility may
sound easy but maintaining compatibility with a sometimes buggy OS
installer - much more difficult. Again, that is what i remember from
the postings on the mailing list and can not vouch for it's veracity
because i am not running Redhat 6, but i sorta remember some
bugzilla.redhat.com entries to back it up.

There were 4.x and 5.x and 6.x upstream releases that occurred over
the course of a few short months.  Usually these are spaced out over
more time.  Weren't there many 5.6-xyz releases as well over the same
timeframe.  If Scientific Linux does not release the same patch sets
as upstream, then it may not be binary compatible.  Scientific Linux
5.6 was released almost three months later than CentOS 5.6.

I am glad the topic of binary compatibility came up.  There have been
many feature suggestions on the CentOS list that _should_ fall on deaf
ears because binary compatibility with upstream Redhat means that
CentOS aims to not provide any extra features in a standard install.
With Fedora and Ubuntu, patches can be submitted for new features
which get readily incorporated.  Just not possible with a distro that
aims to be binary compatible.

CentOS usually gets out a new release roughly within 2 months of
publishing by redhat.  Once in a while, it is longer or much much
longer.  If you are looking for the FreeIPA, then that will not be
available until 6.2 anyway.  By that time, the CentOS team will have
hit their stride and back to their normal rebuild time.