Hello QuickBoxers and happy Friday! It’s October 1st and it’s my favorite month of the year (no more heat!), but most importantly, it’s time for another Developer Update!
it's in the details
This week has been a long grind towards the finish line. We don’t have a lot of excitement to report, as at this point we are working on the remaining conversions of software build packages. Can’t pack much of an enthusiastic punch behind that. We’re still working on tweaking things here and there. A lot of this revolves around brainstorming the most efficient route to various functions within the code-base. As reported in our previous updates, we’ve optimized so much in v3 that it’s spooky how well it’s performing in our current developer trials. The good news is that by the end of this month we’ll be passing something over for our beta squad to rip into.
So in regards to the code work, not a lot… but we do have some details that I will address now as the last thing we want is for this to be a shock to anyone.
v3 delivery (that's installs and upgrades)
- Ubuntu is becoming increasingly bloated with unnecessary elements and background tasks that are simply not needed on a media server, let alone headless servers.
- Ubuntu is a fork of Debian. They are essentially the same, but again, ubuntu stuffs in extra bells and whistles.
- Here’s food for thought.
* An Ubuntu ISO for a minimal server (headless) install is 2.6GB.
* Debian is 600MB.
The functionality at it’s core is exactly the same! whhhaaaaaat???
- Here’s food for thought.
- Debian being lighter weight and producing more stable lineage is the preferred OS. Your server will actually thank you for running Debian.
- As the dependencies can vary from Ubuntu to Debian, this increases the additional work load when troubleshooting, adding in new features, software.. etc.. Debian tends to have the more stable toolset.
- To expand on this. The additional testing and work that goes in to what may sound simple is much larger when it comes to a utility such as QuickBox. This takes time away from streamlining the Feature Requests for new additions. If we supported one OS and it’s spawn of Distro (Debian 9, 10, and 11 once it’s fully supported) we will not have to juggle various python, dependencies, etc etc. With being able to put more time into development and the focus shifted to only supporting Debian, this means we can have more time to drastically expand on our overall visions of QuickBox.
v2 updates
When v3 is released, only those on Debian 9 or 10 will be able to upgrade. If you are on Ubuntu and would like to utilize v3, this will require a fresh install and only on Debian 9, 10, and 11 (once it’s fully supported).
We will still be posting updates to v2 should you decide you are not ready to wipe your server, or aren’t ready to hop over to v3 just yet. However, a vast majority of the improvements in v3 will not be ported over to v2 due to the nature of the code-base being completely rewritten.
watch out, deprecated software alert!
In v3 we will be sunsetting a few software that are either no longer maintained by their developers, or have more updated versions that are preferred.
These include:
- Couchpotato
- Deluge v1
- NZBHydra
- Sonarr v2
- Radarr v2
- Sickchill
- Unify
Do note that software such as Deluge v1, Sonarr v2, and Radarr v2 will be upgraded to their respected successors on the upgrade from QuickBox Pro v2 to v3 (ex: Deluge v1 will automatically upgrade to v2, Sonarr to v3, and Radarr to v3).
It was decided that rather than completely remove Couchpotato, NZBHydra, Sickchill, and Unify (should you have any of these installed) we will be staging custom links to them on the dashboard, however, there will be no options for service control, nor the ability to install them. Again, this is due to the software developers themselves putting large amounts of work into latest versions that utilize current technologies and best practices.
We’ll have more to discuss on this in next weeks Developer Update as this is an initial gist to keep you guys and gals in the loop of transparency.
In the meantime, catch you all next week! 💖
