Re: KDE is now broken (Fwd: Heads-up: KDE4 hitting testing tonight (UTC) )
On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 10:46:47AM -0500, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote:
> In <[🔎] 20090526142918.GC5158@cat.rubenette.is-a-geek.com>, lee wrote:
> >On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 01:17:16PM -0500, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote:
> >> Use the old software. It might not run on the latest release of Debian,
> >> but it should run on whatever version you had before. Older releases
> >> are maintained in the archive, and you can archive whatever you need
> >> yourself if you don't want to depend on the Debian infrastructure.
> >>
> >> No one is forced to upgrade, but support does dwindle for a product over
> >> time.
> >
> >Where do you find the old software?
>
> "Older releases are maintained in the archive"
For 30 years or more?
> >How do you get it to run on
> >contemporary hardware?
>
> Run it on the hardware you were running it on before. We are talking about
> accessing the data for the purpose of migration; you should still have the
> hardware (and software) you are migrating from.
1.) When I'm changing hardware, I'm usually replacing board, CPU and
RAM. I take that out of the case and put the new stuff in. That means
I can't run the software on the old hardware anymore, not without
changing the stuff out again. It would really suck if I had to do
that.
2.) I'm not so much talking about migration as about keeping data
readable. Keep it on your disks or put it aside on some removable
storage medium, then after 15 or 30 years, try to read it. Having used
a mysql database to store the data doesn't make it easier to read it
after 15 or 30 years.
> >Or do you suggest to rent old hardware from a
> >museum to install 15 or 20 year old software on it to make your data
> >accessible?
>
> Find your local LUG and ask around. I can virtually guarantee that there
> someone with a storage unit full of old hardware they are keeping for some
> reason. Even better if you have a local FreeGeek.
Who would keep all the old hardware? And for what? And it's nothing
you could rely on.
> >Or are you suggesting to rent storage space to pile up old
> >hardware?
>
> If that's what you need to keep your data safe. I certainly don't suggest
> running on hardware platform that you can't maintain (which includes
> acquiring replacement parts).
How do you maintain 15 or 30 year old hardware?
> >That would require you to buy everything new, including hard
> >disks, for example, when upgrading your hardware, and that's something
> >I never did.
>
> That's not true. It might mean you have to multi-task hardware during the
> transition, but I generally don't buy everything new either. Gradual
> upgrades are much preferable.
If you don't buy everything new, you can't put your old hardware into
storage in working order in case you need it to read some data in 30
years.
> >And who guarantees that 30 year old hardware you kept in
> >storage will still work when you need it?
>
> You do.
No, I don't. I have no way to do that. I didn't manufacture it. I can
only assume that it might work or not after 30 years.
If what you're saying is practical for you, go ahead and keep your
pile of hardware over 30 years or longer and try to put something
together to read your data when you need to. That isn't practical for
me.
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