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> The whole thing is a mess and there is absolutely fuck all you will get out of canonical by either mailing them or raising on launchpad, paid up support or no

by rlpb 14y ago

> The whole thing is a mess and there is absolutely fuck all you will get out of canonical by either mailing them or raising on launchpad, paid up support or not. It's open source. For some reason you seem to have unrealistic expectations here. If you're prepared to do the work to fix it, then you'll be heard. If you're not, then you'll only hear echoes of yourself complaining that the problem isn't being fixed. If Ubuntu has introduced a patch over Debian or upstream, there's usually a reason for it. Here, it looks like it's adding some kind of useful functionality for standalone users. > and some of them like two major MySQL issues I raised on an LTS release are unresolved after 3 years even though we were paid landscape and supported users MySQL is a particularly sore point. Upstream (Oracle) have a closed VCS and bug tracker. There's very little that can be done about MySQL issues except to wait for Oracle to fix them. Slackware and Arch have already moved away from MySQL for this reason. If you have a packaging issue, then Ubuntu in time inherits whatever Debian's packaging have done there. There's little different between Debian and Ubuntu's MySQL packaging (they happen to mostly be looked after by the same person wearing two different hats, anyway). I fail to see how Debian is better here in the general case. Ubuntu inherits most of Debian's goodness. In areas where differs, yes Ubuntu can introduce bugs not present in Debian. But it usually differs in the first place because there is extra functionality available in Ubuntu aimed at the everyday user. Again, I think most of the complaints about Ubuntu are really complaints that the open source world isn't fixing your special issue. Ubuntu just tends to get the flak because it is popular. People have fewer expectations from other distros for some reason, even though they are all based on the same upstream sources.

hp50g 14y ago
It's not "open source specific" when you have a support contract with Canonical. Also if it's a high profile package, there is a moral obligation to do a proper job. MySQL issue was fixed by a minor version upgrade on all other platforms including Debian stable! LTS should include that upgrade but it has been frozen at a broken version for 3 years. That is simply unacceptable and purely incompetent. Debian are actually responsive and take defects seriously. Canonical actually break more stuff than they improve. Seriously though, if I phone up Microsoft (we have a support contract along the same lines of Canonical), the actually get a fix to us in quite shockingly good times. We had an SQL server issue and we had a binary hotfix in two days flat. Canonical just do a shit job - simple as.
- rlpb 14y ago
  A minor version upgrade violates Ubuntu's stable release updates policy, which is to backport fixes only. And as I've said, this is very difficult when MySQL upstream keep their VCS private. An Ubuntu developer could try and get a micro release exception in place for MySQL, but as I say this is a MySQL-specific problem. Canonical cannot trump Ubuntu policy.
  - hp50g 14y ago
    Tracking minor versions was part of the LTS policy at the time as we had minor updates before the shit version got thrown at us. This is 10.04 for ref. Were talking v5.0.30 -> v5.0.31 here (these aren't the actual versions as I don't have them in front of me). Also it says in our support contract what the policy is. We no longer have any support contract - waste of money.
    - rlpb 14y ago
      The security team have no option but to throw minor updates in for MySQL because upstream keep their security patches secret. Non-security updates don't currently get this treatment. It sounds like this is what happened to you.
      - hp50g 14y ago
        Fair point - thanks for the clarification! :)
  - Evbn 14y ago
    I though Canonical owns Ubuntu. They can policy whatever they want.
    - rlpb 14y ago
      No. Ubuntu has its own community governance. Though Canonical does employ a number (perhaps the majority) of Ubuntu developers. Policies are ultimately managed by the Technical Board and the Community Council, both of which have members who are not Canonical employees. Mark Shuttleworth does have ultimate executive rights to do anything he wants, and he does own Canonical. So yes, Mark can set whatever policy he wants. But his use of this veto/executive ability is generally documented and he doesn't use it all that much. Certainly not in the details of MySQL and stable release updates.

by rlpb 14y ago

hp50g 14y ago

It's not "open source specific" when you have a support contract with Canonical. Also if it's a high profile package, there is a moral obligation to do a proper job. MySQL issue was fixed by a minor version upgrade on all other platforms including Debian stable! LTS should include that upgrade but it has been frozen at a broken version for 3 years. That is simply unacceptable and purely incompetent. Debian are actually responsive and take defects seriously. Canonical actually break more stuff than they improve. Seriously though, if I phone up Microsoft (we have a support contract along the same lines of Canonical), the actually get a fix to us in quite shockingly good times. We had an SQL server issue and we had a binary hotfix in two days flat. Canonical just do a shit job - simple as.

rlpb 14y ago
A minor version upgrade violates Ubuntu's stable release updates policy, which is to backport fixes only. And as I've said, this is very difficult when MySQL upstream keep their VCS private. An Ubuntu developer could try and get a micro release exception in place for MySQL, but as I say this is a MySQL-specific problem. Canonical cannot trump Ubuntu policy.
- hp50g 14y ago
  Tracking minor versions was part of the LTS policy at the time as we had minor updates before the shit version got thrown at us. This is 10.04 for ref. Were talking v5.0.30 -> v5.0.31 here (these aren't the actual versions as I don't have them in front of me). Also it says in our support contract what the policy is. We no longer have any support contract - waste of money.
  - rlpb 14y ago
    The security team have no option but to throw minor updates in for MySQL because upstream keep their security patches secret. Non-security updates don't currently get this treatment. It sounds like this is what happened to you.
    - hp50g 14y ago
      Fair point - thanks for the clarification! :)
- Evbn 14y ago
  I though Canonical owns Ubuntu. They can policy whatever they want.
  - rlpb 14y ago
    No. Ubuntu has its own community governance. Though Canonical does employ a number (perhaps the majority) of Ubuntu developers. Policies are ultimately managed by the Technical Board and the Community Council, both of which have members who are not Canonical employees. Mark Shuttleworth does have ultimate executive rights to do anything he wants, and he does own Canonical. So yes, Mark can set whatever policy he wants. But his use of this veto/executive ability is generally documented and he doesn't use it all that much. Certainly not in the details of MySQL and stable release updates.