Updating methods

[Richard Hughes]

2009/8/15 Fons Adriaensen <fons at kokkinizita.net>:
> All this *Kit stuff is bringing the worst of Windows
> to Linux, and it's being done in a way that completely
> subverts a normal Unix-like system. Someone should stop
> this madness.

Ha, that's funny!

Basically, the problem is that Linux is quite capable of running old
versions of libraries that no longer exist. But imagine this scenario:

User is using gimp. pidgin has an update, that fixes a remote
exploitable crash. User updates software. User is still using old
version that has been updated, and is still exploitable. User needs to
log out and back in, or restart all pidgin instances.

User is using firefox. openssl has a security update. User updates
software. Firefox is still using old version of the library that is
insecure. User needs to restart the computer, so that all daemons and
user software using openssl load and start using the new version. Or
they could switch to run level 1 and then back to 5, although that's
pretty much a restart in my book.

So sure, you don't /have/ to reboot, but you're not going to get the
benefit (or the protection) of the newly installed updates until you
do. Thinking otherwise is incorrect. You might have thought that Linux
is magic and can update shared libraries behind the scenes and
programs automatically switch to the new installed instance, but it
can't, sorry.

Richard.