#1176 clarify that having backwards compatibility is an okay direction
Closed None Opened 10 years ago by mattdm.

Part of the discussion around allowing Software Collections into Fedora seems to be around a philosophical argument that Fedora should not provide features which support backwards compatibility -- that our mandate is to always have the single latest version of everything.

I'd like to propose a statement to the contrary:

The Fedora Project's mission is to lead the advancement of free and open source software and content as a collaborative community. The values of "features" and "first" underpin this goal of advancement, and historically we have concentrated on packaging the newest possible versions of software with an explicit non-concern for backwards compatibility. However, this does not mean that we shun efforts to provide that compatibility. To the contrary, giving our users a compatibility path provides additional freedom to move quickly without disruption. If Fedora subprojects or packagers are interested in providing and maintaining software stacks which provide backwards or forwards compatibility and can commit the resources required to do so, such effort is very welcome.


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