Re: Testing upgrade and consequences
(I'm not subscribed to this list, due to volume of traffic; but was
advised today to follow up the thread via archives. Please cc any
further comments/responses to me personally off-list. Thanks.)
Many thanks to all who responded both on- and off-list; particularly
those who pointed out the problems associated with apache-perl -- of
which I was unaware before attempting this upgrade. (Like others, I've
always used apache + {additional_perl_stuff}.)
[I'm slowly isolating apache-perl as having been the key trigger to the
cascade of major breakages which followed]
One thing I now realise I *am* apparently guilty of -- and that is
having too high an expectation of what Debian is capable of delivering
from upgrades such as testing.
In my defence, I have to say that this expectation is born of five
years' practical experience of using Debian (stable) as my normal,
everyday working environment, for commercial purposes -- without any
problem. I have no experience at all of running unstable -- I haven't
time to play with stuff that is likely to let me down. However, I *do*
have a hell of a lot of experience of running stable -- and I obviously
expected (a lot) more from the half-way house that I thought testing
would be than it is currently capable of. (Shame about that.)
Short-sightedness/over-expectation on my part, obviously.
But for those who seem to think that clients should never be exposed to
upgrading, I would say: "First know your clients" !
Mine range from horrendously technically competent developer /
administrators who are into writing their own printer drivers (from
scratch) by day 4 of their first course (sic); to those who have *never*
used a command-line interface in their entire IT career.
And Debian's ability to upgrade simply, quickly, and without fuss is its
MAJOR advantage over every other distribution going, for those who know
how to handle it. I teach/demonstrate this to over half of my clients.
[Who absorb the information; then instantly regress to the distribution
which gives them the sexiest graphical interface -- 100% predictably
S.u.S.E. + KDE. Developers please take note.]
Does this help y'all to better understand my reaction?
msw
--
Martin Wheeler - StarTEXT - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
[1] mwheeler@startext.co.uk http://www.startext.co.uk/
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