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Re: Let's have a vote!



Steve Litt wrote:
On Sun, 28 Sep 2014 23:50:45 +1300
Chris Bannister <cbannister@slingshot.co.nz> wrote:

On Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 09:49:10PM -0400, Steve Litt wrote:
On Sat, 27 Sep 2014 18:32:38 -0400
Yes. I'm a huge believer in wiping and reinstalling major versions.
It's like spring cleaning, and I eliminate ghosts of operating
systems past.
And then there's the rest of us who run Debian precisely because you
don't have to reinstall. It's great because you only ever need to
install once.
Hi Chris,

I assume that implicit in your reply is that such a major version
upgrade works well, and that over the years you don't get all sorts of
accumulated software dust bunnies doing funny things to you.

How many others here have experiences like Chris'? My opinions are
based on Windows, Mandrake and Mandriva. By the time I got to Ubuntu in
2007 (and Debian in 2013), I was solidly in the habit of reinstalls and
never tried a major version upgrade on Ubuntu or Debian.

I just advised another poster to reinstall from scratch, so perhaps it
would be good to see how many succeeded, and how many failed, by
upgrading past major versions.

I have yet to see a major upgrade go smoothly. Always re-install from scratch, and end up compiling some packages from upstream source.

Then again, we're running mail and list servers - and wiring together postfix, antispam, antivirus, and a listserver requires a lot of funny plumbing and careful configuring to get it all working right. Slight changes to APIs and configuration files mess things up royally.

That's why the prospect of systemd has me scared beyond belief - every single piece of information I've seen indicates that it's going to take weeks to get everything back to where we are now - and maintaining continuity-of-operations while doing so is going to add to the nightmares. I'd much rather invest that time in things that improve service to end users.

Miles Fidelman

--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra


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