[sles-beta] php disappeared in beta6?

[Simon Flood]

On 15/05/2014 17:34, Richard Brown wrote:

> I think the intention is to stop the need for users to build from source
> or turn to OBS - both of these are going to result in a situation when
> you're running untested software that potentially could cause issues and
> that is hard/impossible to support.

That might be SUSE's intention but I think they're going to achieve the 
opposite (drive more people to build from source and/or use OBS) when 
they find something missing ...

Either that or they'll skip using SLES altogether and go with another 
(enterprise) distro that has what they want.

> Having Modules as repositories with their own release & support schedule
> (separate from SLE) gives SUSE a way of delivering current versions of
> PHP and other scripting packages in a supportable way is meant to be an
> improvement on the past where these quickly moving software stacks were
> all but impossible to support in a timely manner

Currently anyone can check which packages are included with a version of 
SLE (SLES[1] or SLED[2], down to specific architecture and SP level) so 
I hope that will handle (i.e. correctly explain why) packages available 
via Modules. Otherwise people will use another distro.

What concerns me, without knowing all the details about Modules 
(obviously this thread has now brought a future topic to the table 
earlier than planned), is where SUSE will stop with Modules because you 
could say that all previously included (on media) packages could be 
considered the same as PHP so only available via Module(s). Perhaps SUSE 
want to only ship mini ISOs that pull down all packages via Modules 
post-registration? [Note: don't do this!]

I'm certainly finding that I'm now using OBS more than before to provide 
newer versions of packages than included with SLES (i.e. 
freeradius-server) or packages missing (i.e. nfdump). When that's 
happening for "core" packages (and I consider PHP to be core) then I'll 
start looking at other distros as I'm sure my colleagues across the 
University also will.

Simon

[1] https://www.suse.com/products/server/technical-information/
[2] https://www.suse.com/products/desktop/technical-information/
-- 
Simon Flood
Senior Systems Specialist
University of Cambridge
United Kingdom

Novell/SUSE/NetIQ Knowledge Partner