[OT] Are security updates necessary?
stan
goedigi89__e at cox.net
Sun Jun 15 00:43:22 UTC 2008
Mike Bird wrote:
> On Sat June 14 2008 16:37:11 Antonio Olivares wrote:
>
>> I have run old version of KDE 3.1 from Mandrake 9.1 gotten on internet, no
>> single update whatsoever, and I have been safe. So it can be done, do you
>> mean other updates, that can be critical, with apps and not the desktop
>> here.
>>
>
> Some people manage to walk through a minefield without being blown up.
> They were lucky, but not safe.
>
> Security bugs have been fixed in web browsing, email, firewalls,
> displaying pictures, viewing pdfs, and opening documents. Without
> those fixes your system may not have been compromised (but how to
> be certain, eh?) but you certainly would not have been safe.
>
> Meanwhile, back at the KDE ranch ...
>
> --Mike Bird
>
>
I don't use KDE as a desktop, just use the applications in Gnome. So
maybe this isn't true, but I think your argument falls apart as far as
security goes. I expect no one at KDE will be maintaining 3.5. No more
security patches, no more enhancements. All the work will be on 4.x
from now on.
I suggest sticking with Fedora 8 during its lifetime, and seeing how far
KDE 4 gets in the meantime. There has already been an update on the KDE
stuff in Fedora 9. In 6 months you might consider it usable.
This reminds me of the Vista / XP kerfuffle. I think that the Fedora
team might be putting out releases because of a schedule, not because
there are significant enhancements that are ready. Maybe they could
slow the pace down by a month or two. That being said, I've had only
two real problems in Fedora 9. The firefox/pdflush/kjournald contention
issue that locks up any app doing disk IO, and a problem with the scsi
driver that fails to read the superblock on my DVDRW most of the time.
Every release has a few rough edges that get ground down until it is
comfortable. I expect these to get resolved as well.
Good luck to you, whichever choice you make.
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