Re: Upgrading from Etch to Lenny
On Fri, Sep 21, 2007 at 02:49:16PM +0200, Johannes Wiedersich wrote:
> Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
> > On Thu, Sep 20, 2007 at 04:28:09PM -0400, Gregory O'Neal wrote:
> >> I am new to linux. I have been running Etch for a month or so now on
> >> my Gateway Desktop. I am considering moving up to testing. This brings
> >> up the question of what is the proper way to accomplish the upgrade?
> >
> > May I humbly suggest that you may not have had time to learn enough
> > about linux or Debian to run testing? It is, after all, _testing_.
> >
> > What problem are you having in stable (Etch)?
>
> I second that opinion. On the other hand it depends what you are after.
> If you have time to kill with your computer and want to see what bugs
> are like and how to report them and get them fixed, try testing.
>
> If you need your computer for *work*, I strongly recommend that you
> stick with stable (for a while), unless there is an important reason. If
> the important reason is a single program, try backports or installing
> that one package from testing first.
>
> I've been running testing for some hardware reasons for years, it's not
> a big deal, but I am saving a few hours each week since etch hit stable.
It also depends on what hardware, specfically video hardware he has. If
he has an Nvidia card that works with Etch, great. Isn't there an issue
in testing (or perhaps its Sid, I don't run either) where Xorg's nv
doesn't work and the Nvidia drive won't compile either? Sure it will be
fixed soon (TM) but what does a newbie do if he dutifully updates and
finds that his X doesn't work; expecially if all he knows how to run is
X/Synaptic?
In a broad sense, X is the most fragile part of Debian (it may the most
fragile part of any UNIX-like OS). The installer and other 'marketing'
to newbies leads them down the garden path to X dependancy. I was
suggesting that a newbie should be given some pause on that.
----
As for Humbug. I have never been one to invent new ways of using old
words. However, I grew up in Toronto where people aren't necessarily
talking out of the Oxford English Dictionary, or any English dictionary
for that matter. I'm used to pausing to consider what someone meant. I
figured that russel was using the word Humbug as it appears in Canidian
Tire Christmas commercials as opposed to Dickens.
God bless us every one.
Doug.
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