long term support release

[Andrew Farris]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> Andrew Farris wrote:
>>> I was perfectly happy with RH 6.2, and most of what I do now I could do
>>> there, so this can't really be an issue.
>>>
>>>>          A year passes and you've installed an assortment of
>>>> additional apps and perhaps written some of your own.
>>>
>>> Upgrade to next Fedora. Gets easier each time around. A bit of foresight
>>> when installing originally helps much here.
>>
>> Precisely.  The update or upgrades are essentially very simple to 
>> handle when you've got a sane partitioning scheme setup.
> 
> I _really_ have to believe that you haven't run fedora over any span of 
> time across a variety of hardware  with an assortment of additional 
> software installed.

Only since Fedora existed, on 4 machines (2 portables) and virtual machines. 
I'm well aware that there have been hardware issues, but I've never found them 
to be completely unresolvable, and usually get attention very rapidly when you 
report them adequately.  I've had machines updating rawhide since FC1... one of 
them not being actually formatted from FC2->FC8, with a moving target of hardare 
in the machine.  You can believe what you wish.  The upgrade paths always end up 
working (with workarounds...) when the issues get reported.

>> Anyone running Fedora (and especially anyone testing updates or 
>> rawhide) that does not have their home on a separate partition is nuts 
>> (or new to that concept).  If you have /etc/ /root and /home where 
>> they can be safely backed up and restored, then nuking your entire 
>> system for a fresh install is a couple hours of work at best.
>>
>> I just fail to see how anyone interested in running Fedora at all 
>> cannot find a few hours every 6 months to handle that.
> 
> Some people might have better things to do - unless that's an offer to 
> come over and do the upgrades for me if you really believe it's that 
> easy.  The problem is that upgrades do not go smoothly, and if yours 
> have so far it is a matter of luck. I've had disk controller drivers 
> missing or broken, firewire access wildly unpredictable, and after 
> finding hardware to move to, still had to spend days tracking down 
> corresponding driver modules, perl modules, installing java, etc. to get 
> back to where I was before.
> 
> Maybe it's just old fashioned, but I'd prefer that the computer work for 
> me instead of the other way around.

Apparently better things to do includes not taking the steps to smooth out 
eventual problems.  Computers are tools that work for you as hard as you work 
for them.  They do not just work.  This will never change until they are working 
at improving themselves and we are not even involved in the process.

-- 
Andrew Farris <lordmorgul at gmail.com> www.lordmorgul.net
  gpg 0xC99B1DF3 fingerprint CDEC 6FAD BA27 40DF 707E A2E0 F0F6 E622 C99B 1DF3
No one now has, and no one will ever again get, the big picture. - Daniel Geer
----                                                                       ----