Re: Updating your system (was: Re: [SLUG] glib2 oddity)
On 22 Dec, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On Mon, Dec 22, 2003 at 12:45:31PM +1100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > On 22 Dec, Jeff Waugh replied to: > > > > I think it's time to try installing gentoo, and leave all these upgrade > > > > problems in the past. > > > > > > You just need a recent distro - and you don't have to go to extremes to get > > > one. :-) > > > > Upgrading to a new version of a distro is always a big hassle, taking > > days to get working as well as the old one. That's *why* I'm still > > running 7.2 (albeit heavily updated) on this machine. > > If you want to get the mostest for the leastest, > surely something that uses apt (or yum) would be > the best option. I.e. debian or redhat/fedora. > > What are the major inhibiters for your upgrade? > Do you install a lot of software that is not > from rpms/debs? > > Matt Apologies for this belated reply. The major upgrade inhibitors are: 1) Config file breakages. Things I have to painstakingly reconfigure are sendmail, printing, sound, cdwriter 2) Dead utilities. Things I've come to depend on that are no longer maintained so I have to build them myself. (E.g. Postilion.) Tk/Tcl are classic examples: seems like every new release loses backward compatibility so lots of good tools die. (E.g. TkDesk.) 3) Discovering all the little bits and pieces that I use only a few times per year and no longer work, obviously takes a long time. 4) Discovering where config files etc. have moved to, between versions. This is much less of a problem since the FSSTND became widely adopted. I used to install a lot of programs from source, but gave up after RH 6.2, and started using rpms. Then I got fed up with the dependency hell problem and installed apt-get and synaptic, for RH. That kept me happy for a long time, until the packages for the old system started withering up for RH 7.2, because (fair enough) so many dependencies couldn't be satisfied and fewer people were using it. Very natural. The gentoo system is basically working well now, but I'm only working on it in small amounts of my limited spare time. I still haven't checked out the cd writing, and a few other things. But filling in the gaps seems to go pretty smoothly, and I'm happily pockling away at it as a low-priority background task. (While looking forward to switching over permanently. It's been painful: I wouldn't recommend gentoo to most Linux people yet; but I'm feeling confident that I've made the right choice. I just don't enjoy upgrades, and want to avoid having to do it again. In contrast, I don't mind tiny incremental steps.) luke -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: Updating your system (was: Re: [SLUG] glib2 oddity)
> Debian's apt-get plus Synaptic are fine, but rely on people back-porting > updates to old systems, so ultimately you get stuck because your version > is just to old. So that's not a long term solution either. (People who start twitching when their software isn't as new is it could possibly be generally run unstable. And remember that 'unstable' means the distro, not the software.) - Jeff -- GVADEC 2004: Kristiansand, Norwayhttp://2004.guadec.org/ Money can't buy me grok. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: Updating your system (was: Re: [SLUG] glib2 oddity)
On Mon, Dec 22, 2003 at 12:45:31PM +1100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On 22 Dec, Jeff Waugh replied to: > > > I think it's time to try installing gentoo, and leave all these upgrade > > > problems in the past. > > > > You just need a recent distro - and you don't have to go to extremes to get > > one. :-) > > Upgrading to a new version of a distro is always a big hassle, taking > days to get working as well as the old one. That's *why* I'm still > running 7.2 (albeit heavily updated) on this machine. If you want to get the mostest for the leastest, surely something that uses apt (or yum) would be the best option. I.e. debian or redhat/fedora. What are the major inhibiters for your upgrade? Do you install a lot of software that is not from rpms/debs? Matt -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Updating your system (was: Re: [SLUG] glib2 oddity)
On 22 Dec, Jeff Waugh replied to: > > I think it's time to try installing gentoo, and leave all these upgrade > > problems in the past. > > You just need a recent distro - and you don't have to go to extremes to get > one. :-) Upgrading to a new version of a distro is always a big hassle, taking days to get working as well as the old one. That's *why* I'm still running 7.2 (albeit heavily updated) on this machine. To me, if I'm going to put in that amount of effort, it makes more sense to put the effort into switching to a distro that's *designed* to solve the upgrade problems, so I won't have to worry about it ever again. Interesting to note that the commercial distros, who do have some commercial incentive to have you pay for upgrades and new releases, haven't done a lot to solve this problem -- whereas Debian and Gentoo, both non-commercial, have very good to excellent upgrade/update systems. SuSE's YOU system is okay but hasn't blown me away, and Red Hat's "up2date" only works for critical security updates (though you can pay for more, I believe). Debian's apt-get plus Synaptic are fine, but rely on people back-porting updates to old systems, so ultimately you get stuck because your version is just to old. So that's not a long term solution either. luke -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
