On 25/05/09 21:01, Andrew Sayers wrote: > Jan Claeys wrote: > >> A lot of people run unstable during alpha & beta, but many do it in a VM >> or on an old spare system. That doesn't help find regressions that are >> hardware-related, of course, and in general those systems might not see >> the same sort of use that people's "main" computers see. >> >> And to be honest, I don't see how we can make more people use alpha >> versions on their "I need this for work" system... >> > > Recycling my chroot idea from before, how about encouraging people to > install Alpha versions in a chroot? You could use localfs to graft your > real /home in if you wanted. A bit of grub trickery would even let you > boot right into the chroot, with the alpha kernel, when you had enough > free time to give it a go. > > - Andrew >
The challenge I see is that there appears to be a mind-set disconnect between workstation and server users. A half competent server administrator is expected to understand that there are going to be unhappy users breaking down the front door if something happens to their data, so there is a self-regulating conservatism within the upgrade cycle - less upgrades means less heartache. I don't see the same attitude within the desktop community. There seems to be this notion - evidence to the contrary - that a desktop user will protect their own data and backup before they upgrade. Not only that, a glaring hole appears if you consider the example notion of a snap-shot before an Evolution upgrade, so you can downgrade. "What happens to the email that is sent and received between the snap-shot and the down-grade?" As I've said earlier in this thread, I'm contemplating an all virtual desktop. I'm also looking at abstracting data storage as much as possible, that is, store documents in a virtual SAN, store email on an IMAP server, store development code within xyz repository and use my virtual desktop as client to my virtual server(s). This may well seem overkill, but I've been bitten too many times by clients being upgraded that I am beginning to suspect that the decrease in overall actual speed will be well surpassed by the increase in data security. We talk over and over again about application/data separation, but until applications do that for real - we have a long way to go. Data is important and I have to say that I see little evidence within individual applications that it is taken seriously - almost like not willing to accept that their little program is used by real people for real purposes. -- Onno Benschop Connected via Bigpond NextG at S31°54'06" - E115°50'39" (Yokine, WA) -- ()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno.. |>>? ..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 8888 - o...@itmaze.com.au -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss