Modern Update System

[Pete Zaitcev]

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:55:11 -0500, David Hollis <dhollis at davehollis.com> wrote:

> I think there is a project that does this, and has been doing it for
> quite awhile.  It's called Microsoft Windows.  The problem that this
> method poses is that it's very easy to get to a point where you have no
> idea what the current real state of your system is. [...]

Solaris used to have a similar system, where they had subpackages or
"patch" packages. IIRC, they got rid of it and switched to essentially
what we have now, for a few reasons.

 - These fragments always grew and congealed together, which only
   worsened the first problem; also the savings disappeared over the
   life of the package. It was called "jumbo" patch. In a couple of
   patch cycles you would be patching whole package anyway. At that
   point, it's better to install update packages.

 - People were making mistakes installing patches and causing all
   sorts of weirdest problems, and it was a living hell for support
   -- Mind though, that was a decade before yum.

I am quite surprised that it works for Microsoft, because Sun gave it
a good try. Maybe they just ignore most problems, like what happens
when you upgrade a well-patched system to the next release.

-- Pete