[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Proposal to change Evergreen versioning scheme

[Joe]

I wasn't planning on jumping into this conversation, but as someone who 
is not truly a tech professional, but has been thrust into the role over 
the last few years, I think the one important point to make about 
Evergreen versus Linux or SQL is that what version I'm running seems to 
matter much more for whether the system responds the way you expect it 
to in Evergreen than in those programs.

For instance, in my library I have at least 6 instances of linux 
running, and at least 4 of them are running MySQL.  I can't possibly 
tell you what version of the linux kernel any of them are running, or 
what version of MySQL.  In fact, I'd be luckly to accurately remember 
which version of Debian or Ubuntu they have. It's probable that they are 
running at least three versions of MySQL and 4 or 5 versions of the 
linux kernel.  That said, when I go to access the desktop (on those with 
a gui) they all respond more or less the same and when I go into the 
command line, all of the commands that I can remember off hand work the 
same in all of them.

Meanwhile, I would suspect that I would notice the difference between 
Evergreen 1.6 and 2.3.  My staff have noticed the difference between 2.1 
and 2.3 in the minor changes in the things the staff interface does, not 
even mentioning jspac versus tpac...

The thing is the way we interact with Evergreen, and how changes impact 
us, matters more to library staff than changes in the linux kernal 
matter to ordinary linux users.

I suppose I don't have a strong opinion either way, however, if it were 
my decision, I prefer release numbering that maintains some short-hand 
of how large of a jump the change is, not necessarily just incorporating 
new versions of it's dependencies.  After all, will the new version 
appear to be the same to the front line staff users or will it be 
radically different?

Just my two cents worth.

Have a good day.

Joe

Joseph Knueven
Director
Germantown Public Library
51 N. Plum St.
Germantown, OH 45327
937-696-9998x10
knuevejo at oplin.org

On 1/4/2013 3:55 PM, Rogan Hamby wrote:
> I will concur with Lebbeous that library directors  do learn about 
> PostgreSQL and Linux - not in the same way, not based on the same data 
> points that a systems administrator does but they do.  And that's a 
> bit of my point, the versioning is a data point short cut for them, a 
> short hand if you will to communicate things that we sit down and dig 
> in more depth for.  And I say we here, but my day job is actually not 
> IT but as an administrator (HR, ordering books, etc...) and I can tell 
> you that directors and others are interested in FOSS and they do know 
> names like Linux and SQL.
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 3:48 PM, Lebbeous Fogle-Weekley 
> <lebbeous at esilibrary.com <mailto:lebbeous at esilibrary.com>> wrote:
>
>     Alexey,
>
>     I think you're way off when you say that there's a wider audience
>     dealing with Evergreen directly than with PostgreSQL and Linux.
>      You must know that the former has many thousands of direct users,
>     and the latter millions.
>
>     Plenty of people concerned with those projects are in the
>     management layer at various organizations that use F/LOSS for all
>     kinds of things.  It's odd to me that you suggest that Evergreen
>     is special in that library directors and other people besides
>     developers are interested in it.  That situation isn't unique to
>     Evergreen at all.
>
>
>     On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Lazar, Alexey Vladimirovich
>     <alexey.lazar at mnsu.edu <mailto:alexey.lazar at mnsu.edu>> wrote:
>
>
>         On 2013-01-04, at 14:23 , Rogan Hamby
>         <rogan.hamby at yclibrary.net <mailto:rogan.hamby at yclibrary.net>>
>          wrote:
>
>         > As a postscript,
>         >
>         > P.S.
>         >
>         > My previous statements are not an argument against change.
>          As I said before, I have nothing against eating my liver hash
>         (apologies to those who like liver) for greater health but I
>         want the benefit to be clear and substantial for the hassle I
>         can guarantee you I (and others) will have.
>
>         Hi, Rogan. Why would there be any more hassle than during a
>         regular upgrade to a new version?
>
>         Aleksey Lazar
>         PALS
>         IS Developer and Intergrator
>         507-389-2907 <tel:507-389-2907>
>         http://www.pals.org/
>         alexey.lazar at mnsu.edu <mailto:alexey.lazar at mnsu.edu>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>     -- 
>     Lebbeous Fogle-Weekley
>      | Software Developer
>      | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
>      | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
>      | email: lebbeous at esilibrary.com <mailto:lebbeous at esilibrary.com>
>      | web: http://www.esilibrary.com
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> ----------------------------
> Rogan Hamby
> Headquarters Manager, York County Library System
>
> "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to 
> suit me."
> -- C.S. Lewis <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://libmail.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/open-ils-general/attachments/20130104/c375c2d8/attachment-0001.htm>