Subject: Alpine 3.12.0 release candidate 1 is out

From: Natanael Copa <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 May 2020 12:19:40 +0200

Hi!

The first release candidate for 3.12 is out. Please help test!
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.12/releases/

Details on what is new in 3.12:
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Release_Notes_for_Alpine_3.12.0
(Thank you Leo and Cogitri!)

If you find any issues with the release candidate, then please file an
issue with the details, and set the milestone to 3.12.0. Please use
also this milestone for merge requests that are critical for 3.12.0
release.

I would also appreciate help with fixing as many of the remaining bugs:
https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues?milestone_title=3.12.0

Thanks!

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From: ecsx <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 May 2020 15:23:59 +0000

I've been using 3.12.0-RC1 for the last days and it's working well so far. I got just a few notes.

- There's firefox-esr and firefox in community repo now. Are they equally maintained? Which one is recommended? It's been clear in the past (with firefox-esr in community and firefox in testing) that you should choose firefox-esr for stability and better support. What now?

- python3 doesn't provide a python binary or symlink, just a python3. The end-of-life python2 still owns `python`. For the next RC it should be the other way around?

- Are there any guides for syslinux installation on modern (UEFI) boards? I couldn't get it to work and ended up using GRUB.

I'll keep using this RC and let you know if any bug pops up but so far it's good.
Congrats!

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

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From: Rasmus Thomsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 May 2020 18:35:21 +0200

Hello,

first off, thanks for testing the RC! :)

On Tue, 2020-05-26 at 15:23 +0000, ecsx wrote:
> - There's firefox-esr and firefox in community repo now. Are they
> equally maintained? Which one is recommended? It's been clear in the
> past (with firefox-esr in community and firefox in testing) that you
> should choose firefox-esr for stability and better support. What now?

They'll both be equally well maintained, but ff-esr will stay on the
supported esr version (right now 68.x), while ff (non-esr) will always
be the latest release. As such you probably want to use ff-esr if you
value stability (as in no UI changes, no new features etc.) and ff if
you want the latest features or speed improvements. I imagine most end
users will want ff (non-esr).

> - python3 doesn't provide a python binary or symlink, just a python3.
> The end-of-life python2 still owns `python`. For the next RC it
> should be the other way around?

We tried removing the /usr/bin/python symlink from python2 in time for
3.12 but unfortunately too many things in aports still rely on
/usr/bin/python being python2. Unfortunately it's now too late in the
release process for such a big change - but with 3.13 /usr/bin/python
being python2 should be a thing of the past.

> - Are there any guides for syslinux installation on modern (UEFI)
> boards? I couldn't get it to work and ended up using GRUB.

I could swear we have a wiki article about this (which I can't find
right now though), but I have to admit I always use rEFInd or GRUB on
my machines, so maybe someone else knows more about that :)

Thanks!

Rasmus Thomsen

---

From: ecsx <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2020 12:39:46 +0000

> you want the latest features or speed improvements.

I did not keep up with both versions and updates.
Did it happen as you expected? Did ff and ff-esr got same speed with upgrades and were equally maintained?
I see in the wiki schedule that 3.13.0 is getting close and I will decide again between ff and ff-esr (because both are in community repo).
So I just want to know if the position is the same and if everything worked out as you planned in 3.12.0?
I think the most important question is what was the SLA for security updates for ff and ff-esr and if one was better maintained.
Sorry for so many questions but I depend on having updated ff for security critical reasons.

I'm asking all this assuming 3.13.0 will ship with both options again and will I have to choose one. If that's not the plan please let me know

Thanks all for the awesome work. There's no distro like alpine.