Upgrades - updates - discuss?
Robin Laing
Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca
Mon Oct 29 19:59:30 UTC 2007
John Summerfield wrote:
> Robin Laing wrote:
>> I have use RedHat since 4.(something) and I like Fedora and hope to
>> stay with it. The issue I have is downtime to do a full re-install
>> and get things configured. In the past I have had problems with
>> missing/dropped/depreciate packages that have caused me headaches.
>> Issues with secondary repositories not creating new packages for the
>> latest FC until requested. And all the other fun things that keep
>> showing up on this forum. For home use, I cannot afford a second
>> spare computer.
>>
>> With FC8 just about to come out, I am still waiting until I get F7
>> working at home for my wife to allow me to move her from FC4 on her
>> laptop. I cannot take more than a day to do this and she needs all
>> her applications up and running. But some of issues are are not the
>> Fedora teams fault, as the applications are provided by secondary
>> repositories.
>>
>> I came across this article that discusses rolling upgrades in contrast
>> to scheduled upgrades.
>>
>> http://linux-blog.org/index.php?/archives/231-The-Absent-PCLinuxOS-Release-Cycle.html
>>
>>
>> Now this is a pro-PCLinux discussion but some of the points brought up
>> are interesting. Of course they have been brought up on this and the
>> users lists before.
>>
>> Reading about the changes to development in F8 and later versions of
>> Fedora, I wonder if it would be possible to look at doing a rolling
>> upgrade instead of a release?
>>
>
> I don't normally "upgrade" by doing a fresh install. If I want to
> upgrade, I boot the media and upgrade.
>
> I would not expect to have a system down for anything like a day; while
> there might be a touchup required, the basic apps (wordprocessing, web,
> email) can generally be expected to work.
>
> My current desktop was a fresh install, I installed Scientific Linux
> 5.0, then generated a package list from my old system, a crossgrade from
> FC3 to self-built Nahant-clone, and used that to run "yum -y install" or
> similar for everything.
>
> I then copied my ~ from my old system, and that goes back at least as
> far as RHL 7.3 via Debian Woody/testing/Sarge.
>
> I did that on a "new" system, so I had no downtime, I didn't change
> until I was happy.
>
> In your case, I suggest you give Fedora a big fat miss, and use one of
> the RHEL clones.
>
> I know of two continuing projects:
> CentOS, a community project and the more popular
> Scientific Linux, sponsored by US Govt.
>
> I use White Box Enterprise Linux 4 on one system, but I don't know that
> the project is continuing. I don't think there's a reason to prefer it
> over CentOS. There was also Tao, but that merged with CentOS a while back.
>
>
> Those are both supported for years, and probably you will install one
> and be able to run it until you replace the hardware.
>
>
>
The problem is many of the RHEL clones have fewer applications
supportted than a new version of Fedora after two years. For a work
machine, not a problem. A home machine, this is a headache, a big one.
This is why I couldn't upgrade/update Fedora on my wifes machine at
first. Missing applications that she uses.
I am hoping to put F8 on her machine after installing it on my desktop.
--
Robin Laing
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