Thinking about Wary Puppy

I have received a lot of positive feedback about Wary and encouragement to bring out an official release.

For those who don't know, there was an "020" (0.2) release, in two flavours, both had the old Xorg 7.3+ and either the 2.6.33.2 (as used in Quirky and Lupu) or 2.6.30.5 (as used in Puppy 4.3.1) kernels.

I say Xorg 7.3+ as the packages used are later than those used in Pup 4.3.1 (which has the official released Xorg 7.3 packages).

I have been thinking about where Wary can fit into the scheme of things, and this post about long-term kernel support is more to consider:
http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/stable-status-01-2010.html

I rather liked the old 2.6.27 kernel. It is now up to 2.6.27.47! That really is mature. But, the downside is that "long term maintenance" probably did not include adding in new drivers -- for example the many new wireless drivers in recent kernels. But then, when we used those older kernels we compiled many 3rd-party drivers.

I would configure it for uni-processor systems, targeting older hardware.

What do you reckon? Would it be "flogging a dead horse"? Maybe go for the next-up long-term supported kernel, 2.6.32.x.

Or, for Wary should I go for the 2.6.33.5 kernel, configured for uni-processor systems? The downside of that is that I can't compile many of the old analog modem drivers -- that probably the same situation for the 2.6.32.x kernel.

Just putting out some thoughts...

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Comments

IMHO
Username: Iguleder
I think you should go for 2.6.27.x and the latest 2.6.33.x, plus either 2.6.30.5 or 2.6.21.7 as a retro-retro, as you did with 4.3.1. 2.6.34.x is not a very good choice at the moment, because only 2.6.34.1/2/3/... will be stable as the current .33.x. I don't see the stable 2.6.27.x as dead, actually, I think it's very nice and the best candidate for a retro kernel. The big downside of 2.6.27.x is the lack of ext4 support, and that's is very very bad. (Ummmmm ... ext4 backport as a community project?) :D When 2.6.27.x is abandoned in favor of 2.6.32.x, it won't be too much tears to upgrade the current Quirky/Lupu kernel. Besides, the kernel can be replaced easily ... it's not that hard to make several flavors with different kernels with Woof. If you provide a minimal choice of 2-3 kernels it will be more than enough. Experienced users that understand the difference between them can use Woof to use another less common kernel."5 Jun 2010, 18:28"01647"79.180.97.230'Kirk and BigBass"Raffy"Both Kirk and BigBass have worked with 2.6.27.x kernel - Kirk with Fatdog and BigBass with Slaxer. BigBass is still active with Slaxer, see its [url=http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=55772]cooking and [url=http://puppy2.org/slaxer/]website. I still use Kirk's Fatdog 111 (it has Firefox). By using long-term-supported kernel, time can be saved from kernel-hopping and spent on package/repo building. Just my 0.0002c."5 Jun 2010, 22:00"01647"112.207.18.98'Thinking about Wary Puppy"gcmartin"I believe the whole community will get much more mileage out of an upgrade to .6.33+. Hardware has gooten so cheap that even a robust machine can be purchased from neighborhood shops for $25-$50. The processors I am seeing are hyperthreading as well as AMD 64bit processors that are 7-8 years old. The drivers and the onslaught of VMs makes 2.6.33+ suited to not only address older hardware, but certainly the latest netbooks as well with very very good performances. IMHO, You be the judge for the present and future of WARY."6 Jun 2010, 2:19"01647"99.88.53.9'2.6.27.x maintenance"BarryK"I have been in contact with Greg Kroah-Hartman, the current maintainer of the 2.6.27.x kernel, and he has reassured me that he intends to keep maintaining it: [i]I haven't stopped .27.x maintenance, and hadn't planned on it for a while either.[/i] If anyone is interested to know more about Greg himself, he is very much into supporting Linux development, on the hardware/driver side of things: http://www.kroah.com/linux/ Username: 9 Jun 2010, 8:23
"01647"114.129.167.148'

Tags: wary