Upgrades - updates - discuss?

[Robin Laing]

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