Seeing how things develop
Published on 7th October 2009 Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutesOne of the things that I do out of curiosity and self-interest is to keep tabs on what is happening with development versions of software that I use. It is for this reason that I always have a development version of WordPress on the go to ensure that the next stable version doesn't bring my blog to its knees. There have been contributions from my own self to the development effort, mainly in the form of bug reports, with the occasional bug fix too.
In the same vein, I have had a development version of Ubuntu installed in a VirtualBox virtual machine. While there have been breakages and reinstallations along the way when an update results in disruption, it is intriguing, too, to see how a Linux distribution comes to fruition. In the early days of Karmic Koala (9.10), everything was thrown together more loosely and advances looked less obvious. While it is true to say the ext4 file systems support was already in place, the interface looked like a tweaked version of the standard GNOME desktop. Over time, the desktop has been customised and boot messages hidden out of sight. Eye candy like new icons and backgrounds have begun to entice while other features such as an encrypted home folder, Software Store and Ubuntu One all come into place. Installation screens became slicker and boot times reduced. All of this may seem incremental, but revolutions can break things, and you only have to look at the stuttering progress of Windows to see that. Even with all of these previews, I still plan to do a test run of the final revision of 9.10 before committing to putting it in place on my main home PC. Bearing the scars of misadventures over the years has taught me well.
Though Windows development is a less open process, I have been partial to development versions there too. In fact, beta and release candidate installations of Windows 7 have convinced me to upgrade from Windows XP for those times when a Windows VM needs to be fired up in anger. A special offer has had me ordering in advance and sitting back and waiting. With my Windows needs being secondary to my Linux activities, I am not so fussed about taking my time and I have no intention of binning Windows XP just yet anyway.
The trouble with all of this previewing is that you get buffeted by the ongoing development. That is very true of Ubuntu 9.10 and has been very much part and parcel of the heave that brought WordPress 2.7 into being last year. Things get added and then removed as development tries to find that sweet spot, or a crash results, forcing you to rebuild things. It is small wonder that you are told not to put unfinished software on a production system. Another consequence might be that you really question why you are watching all of this and come to decide that what you already have is a place of safety in comparison to what's coming. So far, that has never turned out to be true, but there's no harm in looking before you leap either.