Re: Summary: Which Linux distribution is stable yet up-to-date

[Yuval Adam]

> 
> I would recommend against Arch Linux because, like I said, its
> installations can be left in an unusable state if one forgets to update
> it frequently enough. I'm not sure about Void Linux as I never used it.
> 

That's factually incorrect. If you current state is stable, it will
remain stable for eternity as long as no updates are made and you do not
attempy any foolish things like system-wide installations without using
your package manager (why would a stable system become unstable otherwise?)

Of course if you never upgrade you miss out on being on the bleeding
edge of upstream packages, don't receive security updates etc. On an
typical Arch setup it's common to run daily or weekly updates with no
other side affects.

Over the past 3 years I only recall a single severe breakage of my
system due to upgrading that required booting from a rescue USB and
fixing a stupid mistake I made in my bootloader configuration.

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Re: Summary: Which Linux distribution is stable yet up-to-date

[Shlomi Fish]

Hello Yuval,


On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 1:11 PM, Yuval Adam  wrote:

>
> >
> > I would recommend against Arch Linux because, like I said, its
> > installations can be left in an unusable state if one forgets to update
> > it frequently enough. I'm not sure about Void Linux as I never used it.
> >
>
> That's factually incorrect. If you current state is stable, it will
> remain stable for eternity as long as no updates are made and you do not
> attempy any foolish things like system-wide installations without using
> your package manager (why would a stable system become unstable otherwise?)
>
>
Sorry for being unclear, but by "unusable state" I meant that one can no
longer upgrade the system it using "pacman -Syu" (or whatever the command
is) because it gives errors. The system itself works fine but will run
outdated software applications (and often ones with known security
vulnerabilities). I had to decommission several Arch VMs due to this
problem, and it's a well-known problem for other people that can be found
using web searches.

Regards,

-- Shlomi Fish

-- 
--
Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/

Chuck Norris helps the gods that help themselves.

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