[Koha] Why are there 2 versions?

[Paul]

At 01:00 PM 6/3/2011 -0400, Owen Leonard wrote:
> > So while there is no more
> > development to 3.2, any bugs found will be fixed.  At some point, even that
> > will stop and everyone will be expected to get themselves upgraded.
>
>And indeed, the 3.2.x Release Maintainer has said that the upcoming
>3.2.10 release will most likely be the final release of the 3.2.x
>branch.

"expected to get themselves upgraded" ... or, of course, to retain 3.2.x in 
production.

We have a functional, extensively customized, 3.2.5 that meets the 
requirements of our cataloguers and users.  While I might spend some of my 
spare [?] time looking at 3.4 (I really like the concept of templates), the 
customization has to be done all over again, and is proving troublesome. 
Nothing wrong with Koha, all to do with our requirements; I ended up 
modifying the SQL structure to accept longer, searchable keywords and 
abstracts; to facilitate serials cataloguing; and to remove all "lending 
library" features to speed things up considerably (we are 
reference/research only.)

If and when I get 3.4 running to our requirements, we'll evaluate whether 
we migrate; but in the meanwhile, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."  And 
I'm sure there's got to be a lot of other Koha users who are also wary of 
"upgrading" a fully functional tool.

This is the great strength of community-driven, open license products - you 
can reach a point where you have achieved what you set out to do. Anything 
after that can be considered much lower priority. Quite frankly, my only 
concern at this point is to get rid of Zebra and integrate different search 
methodology which is apparently not high on the Koha horizon; barcoded 
spine labels, dustjacket images and emailed fines are not in our 
specifications.

Everyone achieving their own specs, again, is a Koha strength. Otherwise 
we'll end up following the "M$ business code" - if Win98 is good enough for 
a Koha kiosk (and it most certainly is) you don't need to go chasing Vista, 
Win7 or Win8.  Our Ubuntu 10.10 server is perfect for Koha, so I only look 
for the ultra-rare Ubuntu security alerts.

Given our satisfaction with Koha, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on 
future versions; but in the meanwhile, I respectfully beg to differ with 
the statement that "everyone will be expected to get themselves upgraded."

Regards - Paul
Tired old sys-admin.

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