Ackward timing for me FC1-FC2?

[Nix, Robert P.]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	fedora-list-admin at redhat.com [SMTP:fedora-list-admin at redhat.com] On Behalf Of John Fleming
> Sent:	Tuesday, March 09, 2004 9:47 AM
> To:	fedora-list at redhat.com
> Subject:	Ackward timing for me FC1-FC2?
> 
> I'm a newbie with a nice FC1 install, handling some web hosting and email filtering for a small group with SpamAssassin.  This is on a really old/slow machine that was borrowed from another location for experimentation and needs to return to its usual home.  I have a new server now that awaits an OS.
>  
> 1.  Should I go ahead and put FC1 on it?  If so, when a stable FC2 comes out, how best to retain what I have going, e.g. Apache conf, mail conf, SpamAssassin conf etc, or would I just have to manually save all pertinent configuration files and then reinstall each software after the new install of FC2?
>  
> 2.  OR, should I install FC2 testing now?  If I do that, will I be able to yum update to the stable version when it's released, or will that still require a new full install?
>  
> 3.  FC1 does everything I want right NOW.  Should I just install FC1 on the new machine and wait and see how long I can remain happy with this version??
>  
> Thanks any tips - This isn't an enterprise operation, obviously, but I want to be able to install new apps in the future.  - John
> 
> 
There's something to be said for the adage "If it's not broke, don't fix it." If FC1 is doing everything you want it to, then you really don't need to upgrade. Air Traffic Control used IBM System360 machines long after newer faster machines were available, because they did what they wanted them to do. There was no incentive to upgrade. 

The only exception should be that you'd want to pick up any security updates as they come out, especially if the machine is routinely exposed to the entire Internet, and since you said that you're web hosting with it, I'd have to assume that it is. These updates will continue to be generated for two to three months after the release of FC2, so you have that time to decide on your "plan of attack" and to let FC2 mature and settle down.

The problem with installing FC2 Test n is that there is / will be no defined upgrade path from there to FC2 when it is released. You'd have to scratch and reinstall.

If you install FC1 at this point, there are quite a few updates to be applied afterward. Since you said that you were web hosting, I assume that you have a high speed connection, so that may not be as big an issue as it would be if you were on a dial-up connection.

Once FC2 comes out officially, there will be an upgrade option in the install, so that you could leave what you have invested in setting up FC1 and drop in FC2 on top of it. The problem I have with this is that when you choose upgrade, that's exactly what you get: Only packages that you already have installed will be upgraded. So you'll get the new kernel, since you have a previous kernel installed. But if there were a new "xyzzy" package that wasn't in FC1, the upgrade will not install it, or even let you know that it exists. (At least, this was true of FC1.) This process caused a lot of confusion for people upgrading from RH8 or RH9 to FC1, as packages they expected to find were not available after the upgrade. People were talking about the "neat new foobar feature", while some of us were sitting there saying "what foobar feature?"

Hope this helps...
----
Robert P. Nix                            internet: nix.robert at mayo.edu
Mayo Clinic                                  phone: 507-284-0844
RO-CE-8-857                                page: 507-270-1182
200 First St. SW 
Rochester, MN 55905      
----   "Codito, Ergo Sum" 
"In theory, theory and practice are the same,
 but in practice, theory and practice are different."