Message-ID: <4D2778AE.8000408@redhat.com>
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:33:50 -0700
From: Eric Blake <eblake AT redhat DOT com>
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Subject: Re: What version of cygwin is considered stable on Windows 7?
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On 01/07/2011 01:12 PM, Larry W. Virden wrote:
> When considering building a basically "frozen" version of cygwin - that i=
s to=20
> say, downloading, configuring, and building a disk image, then turning th=
at disk=20
> image into a MSI for installation purposes (in an environment where this =
is=20
> being done because users will not have Windows 7 permissions to perform=
=20
> additional setup or package manipulations), what version of cygwin should=
 be=20
> considered stable for developer use?  The environment expects to use cygw=
in/x ,=20
> bash, and a variety of commonly used "unix-like" applications (awk, perl,=
 wc,=20
> cat, make, java, ...).
>=20
> Certainly each alpha and beta release contains bug fixes and enhancements=
 that=20
> might be useful for the developer to have.  However, in at least this sho=
p,=20
> there isn't enough time available for software integrators to update the=
=20
> installation image daily and push it out.  Instead, there is typically a =
point=20
> in time in which a project is created which draws a line, picks the recom=
mended=20
> release at that point, bundles things up, and then, in the future as prob=
lems or=20
> features demand, a new project is proposed, scheduled, staffed, and execu=
ted for=20
> creating a new release.
>=20
> Is cygwin 1.7.6 considered stable for use on 32 bit Windows 7? Or do we n=
eed to=20
> drop back farther?

Cygwin is pretty much a moving target, by its very nature as an open
source collection; but each release (1.7.6, 1.7.7 are the most recent,
and 1.7.8 isn't too far off) represents points where the main
cygwin1.dll was thought to be stable.  But that doesn't include the
level of where all the other packages were at.  And the advice from this
list is generally more focused on the latest release - as volunteers, we
don't have time to support a large set of prior releases, and instead
focus on the latest.

If you're that worried about stability, you may want to consider buying
a support contract, to help offload the stability issues out of your
shop and onto the folks at Red Hat, and where support for prior versions
is taken more seriously by nature of the support contract:
http://www.redhat.com/services/custom/cygwin/

--=20
Eric Blake   eblake AT redhat DOT com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org


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