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Re: Testing upgrade and consequences



On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, Chris Bates wrote:

> Debian has two beautiful aspects (speaking as a refugee from NT and
> RedHat): it is very conservative and hence very stable;

agreed -- this is why I have been using it since 1996

> and apt-get install
> is one of the neatest ideas I've seen.

likewise -- this is the biggest plus point Debian has for me.

> I've only been using Debian GNU/Linux for a couple of months and early on I
> tried to do a dist-upgrade or similar.

-- I've been doing a dist-upgrade every night for the last eighteen
months.  Any problems have been really minimal.  I *trust* it.

> As regards packages which are imporant but which may not be *Debianized*, I
> put things like Java, Star Office and Adobe Acrobat in /opt.

Which is where mine were.  Didn't stop StarOffice from being nuked, tho.

>  I mention this because Martin seems to have lost things like
> SGML DTDs which should never have been placed in unsafe locations.

No -- didn't lose *any* DTDs.  (They're safely catalogued.)  Mainly lost
apps and above all, configuration files for apps.  No idea why the
configuration files & directories seemed to be so badly nuked.

> Final thought, are these Debain tools suitable for business users?

Yes.  (Professional sysadmins love 'em.  Trainee sysadmins really
appreciate the ease of upgrade -- once they've fought with a couple of
non-installable RPMs, that is.  Workstation *users* should never see
them.)

> Should
> any business auto-update anything? Probably not, certainly not on a
> critical system.

*Definitely* not on critical systems.  Stable only; and nothing else.
(I just had a hankering to try testing, is all. <SIGH>)

> Businesses should use stable + security updates +
> upgrading key software only if it provides vital features.

Absolutely.
-- 
Martin Wheeler       -        StarTEXT - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
[1] mwheeler@startext.co.uk                   http://www.startext.co.uk/

     - Share your knowledge. It's one way to achieve immortality. -



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