Announcement: VirtualBox 4.3.4 and 4.2.20 released

[Frank Mehnert]

Hi,

today Oracle released VirtualBox 4.3.4, a maintenance release of
VirtualBox 4.3 which improves stability and fixes regressions.

See the Changelog at

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog

for a complete list of all changes. You can download the binaries
here:

http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.3.4/

At the same time Oracle released VirtualBox 4.2.20, a maintenance
release of VirtualBox 4.2. See the Changelog at

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog-4.2

for a complete list of all changes. You can download the binaries
here:

http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.20/

Kind regards,

Frank
--
Dr.-Ing. Frank Mehnert | Software Development Director, VirtualBox
ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG | Werkstr. 24 | 71384 Weinstadt, Germany

Hauptverwaltung: Riesstr. 25, D-80992 München
Registergericht: Amtsgericht München, HRA 95603
Geschäftsführer: Jürgen Kunz

Komplementärin: ORACLE Deutschland Verwaltung B.V.
Hertogswetering 163/167, 3543 AS Utrecht, Niederlande
Handelsregister der Handelskammer Midden-Niederlande, Nr. 30143697
Geschäftsführer: Alexander van der Ven, Astrid Kepper, Val Maher

[Fernando Cassia]

Post by Frank Mehnert
At the same time Oracle released VirtualBox 4.2.20, a maintenance
release of VirtualBox 4.2.

Thanks for the heads up Frank.

I wonder what was the reason for keeping v4.2.x with maintenance along with
4.3.x ? is there some fundamental feature that 4.2 supported that 4.3 does
not?

Thanks in advance and keep up the great work.

FC

[Alexey Eromenko]

I believe their commercial software (Oracle VDI) is based on an older
branch of VBox

Post by Fernando Cassia

Post by Frank Mehnert
At the same time Oracle released VirtualBox 4.2.20, a maintenance
release of VirtualBox 4.2.

Thanks for the heads up Frank.
I wonder what was the reason for keeping v4.2.x with maintenance along with
4.3.x ? is there some fundamental feature that 4.2 supported that 4.3 does
not?
Thanks in advance and keep up the great work.
FC
--
During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary
act
Durante épocas de Engaño Universal, decir la verdad se convierte en un Acto
Revolucionario
- George Orwell
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[Fernando Cassia]

Post by Alexey Eromenko
I believe their commercial software (Oracle VDI) is based on an older
branch of VBox

Thanks Alexey.

It just caught my eye. I don't remember many times before with two versions
released in parallel.
But I haven't been keeping track closely, so maybe I'm wrong.

FC

[Alexey Eromenko]

It often happens, but rarely announced.

Post by Fernando Cassia

Post by Alexey Eromenko
I believe their commercial software (Oracle VDI) is based on an older
branch of VBox

Thanks Alexey.
It just caught my eye. I don't remember many times before with two versions
released in parallel.
But I haven't been keeping track closely, so maybe I'm wrong.
FC
--
During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary
act
Durante épocas de Engaño Universal, decir la verdad se convierte en un Acto
Revolucionario
- George Orwell
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT
organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance
affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your
Java,.NET, & PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro!
http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349351&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
_______________________________________________
VBox-users-community mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vbox-users-community
_______________________________________________

--
-Alexey Eromenko "Technologov"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT
organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance
affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your
Java,.NET, & PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro!
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[Gregory Nowak]

Post by Fernando Cassia
It just caught my eye. I don't remember many times before with two versions
released in parallel.
But I haven't been keeping track closely, so maybe I'm wrong.

I don't recall specifics, but I do remember there were a couple other
instances where maintenance releases happened for the current stable,
and one, even two older branches.

Greg

[Frank Mehnert]

Post by Alexey Eromenko
I believe their commercial software (Oracle VDI) is based on an older
branch of VBox

that's sometimes the correct reason but not in this case, see my other
mail :)

Kind regards,

Frank
--
Dr.-Ing. Frank Mehnert | Software Development Director, VirtualBox
ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG | Werkstr. 24 | 71384 Weinstadt, Germany

Hauptverwaltung: Riesstr. 25, D-80992 München
Registergericht: Amtsgericht München, HRA 95603
Geschäftsführer: Jürgen Kunz

Komplementärin: ORACLE Deutschland Verwaltung B.V.
Hertogswetering 163/167, 3543 AS Utrecht, Niederlande
Handelsregister der Handelskammer Midden-Niederlande, Nr. 30143697
Geschäftsführer: Alexander van der Ven, Astrid Kepper, Val Maher

[Frank Mehnert]

Hi Fernando,

On Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 6:42 PM, Frank Mehnert

Post by Frank Mehnert
At the same time Oracle released VirtualBox 4.2.20, a maintenance
release of VirtualBox 4.2.

Thanks for the heads up Frank.
I wonder what was the reason for keeping v4.2.x with maintenance along with
4.3.x ? is there some fundamental feature that 4.2 supported that 4.3 does
not?
Thanks in advance and keep up the great work.

the reason is
1) to save effort (doing two releases together is a bit less work
than two separate releases)
2) two Mac OS X problems on Mavericks (signed kernel extensions and
the problem of the ghost icon remaining in the dock after a VM
attached to a host-only network interface was terminated. It took
some time to find the fixes.

Kind regards,

Frank
--
Dr.-Ing. Frank Mehnert | Software Development Director, VirtualBox
ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG | Werkstr. 24 | 71384 Weinstadt, Germany

Hauptverwaltung: Riesstr. 25, D-80992 München
Registergericht: Amtsgericht München, HRA 95603
Geschäftsführer: Jürgen Kunz

Komplementärin: ORACLE Deutschland Verwaltung B.V.
Hertogswetering 163/167, 3543 AS Utrecht, Niederlande
Handelsregister der Handelskammer Midden-Niederlande, Nr. 30143697
Geschäftsführer: Alexander van der Ven, Astrid Kepper, Val Maher

[Fernando Cassia]

Post by Frank Mehnert
the reason is
1) to save effort (doing two releases together is a bit less work
than two separate releases)

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the kind reply.

I wasn't speaking about the logistics, but rather keeping two versions
available/supported at once.
In other words, I thought that releasing a v4.3.x would obsolete all 4.2.x
releases.

Why keeping both branches active/supported at the same time (4.3 and 4.2.x)
is what puzzles me. So I repeat my question (this time to you :), is there
any reason why anyone would use 4.2.x instead of 4.3.x? was any feature in
4.2.x dropped in 4.3.x or is it the same (and better) to go with 4.3.x ?

Thanks so much for your time and replies.
FC

[Frank Mehnert]

On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 3:57 AM, Frank Mehnert > Thanks for the kind reply.
I wasn't speaking about the logistics, but rather keeping two versions
available/supported at once.
In other words, I thought that releasing a v4.3.x would obsolete all 4.2.x
releases.
Why keeping both branches active/supported at the same time (4.3 and 4.2.x)
is what puzzles me. So I repeat my question (this time to you :), is there
any reason why anyone would use 4.2.x instead of 4.3.x? was any feature in
4.2.x dropped in 4.3.x or is it the same (and better) to go with 4.3.x ?
Thanks so much for your time and replies.

The reason is that every new major release changes the behavior a bit
and introduces regressions and some customers / users like to keep the
older behavior and stay on a branch with less invasive changes. Of course
it would make our life much easier if we could ignore older branches once
a new major release is out but that's not possible :)

Kind regards,

Frank
--
Dr.-Ing. Frank Mehnert | Software Development Director, VirtualBox
ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG | Werkstr. 24 | 71384 Weinstadt, Germany

Hauptverwaltung: Riesstr. 25, D-80992 München
Registergericht: Amtsgericht München, HRA 95603
Geschäftsführer: Jürgen Kunz

Komplementärin: ORACLE Deutschland Verwaltung B.V.
Hertogswetering 163/167, 3543 AS Utrecht, Niederlande
Handelsregister der Handelskammer Midden-Niederlande, Nr. 30143697
Geschäftsführer: Alexander van der Ven, Astrid Kepper, Val Maher

[Fernando Cassia]

Post by Frank Mehnert
Of course
it would make our life much easier if we could ignore older branches once
a new major release is out but that's not possible :)

Thanks! Understood.

One last and I'll leave you free to enjoy the weekend. ;-) I see Fedora RPM
builds are named as for Fedora 17.
Well, Fedora 17 is no longer supported. The current supported release is
Fedora 19 (and 18). Fedora 20 is coming next in a matter of weeks.

So ideally you should target Fedora (current) and Fedora (current -1). That
would be 19 and 18, not 17.
Thoughts? Comments?

FC

[Frank Mehnert]

Post by Fernando Cassia
One last and I'll leave you free to enjoy the weekend. ;-) I see Fedora RPM
builds are named as for Fedora 17.
Well, Fedora 17 is no longer supported. The current supported release is
Fedora 19 (and 18). Fedora 20 is coming next in a matter of weeks.
So ideally you should target Fedora (current) and Fedora (current -1). That
would be 19 and 18, not 17.
Thoughts? Comments?

we always try to build packages not for _every_ release of a Linux
distribution. For 4.3.x we offer packages for F17 and F18, the F18
packages work well on F19.

Thanks,

Frank
--
Dr.-Ing. Frank Mehnert | Software Development Director, VirtualBox
ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG | Werkstr. 24 | 71384 Weinstadt, Germany

Hauptverwaltung: Riesstr. 25, D-80992 München
Registergericht: Amtsgericht München, HRA 95603
Geschäftsführer: Jürgen Kunz

Komplementärin: ORACLE Deutschland Verwaltung B.V.
Hertogswetering 163/167, 3543 AS Utrecht, Niederlande
Handelsregister der Handelskammer Midden-Niederlande, Nr. 30143697
Geschäftsführer: Alexander van der Ven, Astrid Kepper, Val Maher

[Fernando Cassia]

Post by Frank Mehnert
we always try to build packages not for _every_ release of a Linux
distribution. For 4.3.x we offer packages for F17 and F18, the F18
packages work well on F19.

My point was that if you provide releases for Fedora 17, very few people
will download and use it, because
EVERYONE has moved off Fedora 17 by now. Fedora is "bleeding edge" distro
released twice a year. Supported releases (that get bugfixes, including
security fixes) are the last released version, and the one before that
(currently that means Fedora 19 and 18). Fedora 17 is EOL by now.

Thus, there aren't many (if any) Fedora 17 users out there because there's
no longer security or stability fixes on the repos anymore, it's an
obsolete release.

If, going forward, you could adjust your releases to cover "current Fedora
version -1" (that would be Fedora 18 by now) then you'll please everyone.
By the time Fedora 20 is released, you'd be building Virtualbox RPMs for
Fedora 19, and so on...

I hope you get my idea. Thanks a bunch for listening Frank.

Happy weekend.

FC

[poma]

Post by Fernando Cassia

Post by Frank Mehnert
we always try to build packages not for _every_ release of a Linux
distribution. For 4.3.x we offer packages for F17 and F18, the F18
packages work well on F19.

My point was that if you provide releases for Fedora 17, very few people
will download and use it, because
EVERYONE has moved off Fedora 17 by now. Fedora is "bleeding edge" distro
released twice a year. Supported releases (that get bugfixes, including
security fixes) are the last released version, and the one before that
(currently that means Fedora 19 and 18). Fedora 17 is EOL by now.
Thus, there aren't many (if any) Fedora 17 users out there because there's
no longer security or stability fixes on the repos anymore, it's an
obsolete release.
If, going forward, you could adjust your releases to cover "current Fedora
version -1" (that would be Fedora 18 by now) then you'll please everyone.
By the time Fedora 20 is released, you'd be building Virtualbox RPMs for
Fedora 19, and so on...
I hope you get my idea. Thanks a bunch for listening Frank.

For reasons of consistency and technical accuracy I support this initiative.
Vorsprung durch technik.

Bee awesome.:!


poma