Re: The fate of libc5
My $1 on the subject...
I have always recommended Debian GNU/Linux to people with permanent connection to
the Internet, to people that want a SERVER (ie a secure, stable UNIX like system)
etc, instead of RedHat (which I have actually recommended to some total beginners with
UNIX and deriviates) for mainly ONE thing... The (total!) ease of upgradability!!!
Debian GNU/Linux is _NOT_ easy to install, no matter what people say! It's easy if
you know what you're doing, but for a luser it is NOT easy! My girlfriend (which is
now taking the SAR Linux certificate) pulls her hair, and yells at me 'how do I do
this', 'What does this mean' etc... With RH she never had THAT problem, it was just
a matter of 'point and click' through the admin programs, and RH took care of the
rest (sure, when it started to mess with her, not working as it was supposed, then
not even I could fix it! :), so... She replaced RH with Debian, and I have to take
the heat every time, but It's worth it, because I can actually help her! :)
Debian is the _ONLY_ system I know (and I know quite a lot of systems, albeight not
very deep on the commercial unises) that can be upgraded from years old installations
without re-mkfs the disk(s) etc!! RH _DEFENATLY_ (that I know of) can't do this!
The talk about 'limit upgradability to two major releases back' gives me the creeps!!
It would be very sad if we did this... Yes, it will make the releases take longer, but
some people seem to forget that Debian GNU/Linux is _NOT_ about fast releases, we
are about _QUALITY_!!! Debian have always been the _BEST_ (!!!) UNIXLikeOperatingSystem
(tm) there've been. One of the reason for this (at least in my NOT so humble opinion :)
is that we take TIME to test, test, test (etc) over and over again, so that what we
release officially, WORKS. And works GOOD, SECURELY and STABLE!!!
I agree (in some form) that 'really old packages should be removed', but I just don't
see any (big) point in doing so... It's not that much strain on the FTP archive, it
keeps the Developer on edge, to remember the old versions... And code that have already
been written to ease upgradability, why throw it away?
And the extra 'publicity' we get of having the possibility to (reasonably easily)
upgrade is worth quite a lot I think...
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