[lug] RedHat 9?

[Nate Duehr]

> I don't think you can expect major release upgrades to just happen without
any
> intervention.  For one thing, configuration file formats tend to change,
and
> I don't think any distro can resolve these automatically.

Right, but when this happens in Debian, it's a release-critical bug if the
pre-install script doesn't warn you and give you the chance to fix it while
still "doing the right thing" with the upgrade as best it can if you're
running in a non-interactive mode.  Seriously.

If you can't dist-upgrade then they won't release the package!  Been
documented in their package maintenance process for years... way ahead of
their time on that one.

> While Debian's dist-upgrade feature is pretty darn good, I'm still partial
to
> a fresh install for major release changes.  As someone said earlier, it
tends
> to whack out older cruft and give you a known starting point.  With good
> documentation, it takes me very little time to drop things back in /etc
and
> get it all going again.

Normally I'd agree, but in some environments, there's simply no chance for
downtime.  (Sad, but true.  Maintenance time is not planned nor provided.)
Having the ability to do a complete upgrade with all that's left is a couple
of things it warned you about and a reboot -- is a pleasant experience if
working in that type of environment.

Much more pleasant than being under the gun to put a bunch of config files
back and try to get it all working at once.  Less chaos, better chance it
gets done right.

I'm just a Debian fan... it definitely has downsides (the installer still
sucks, after three re-writes), and no commercial entity I've ever worked for
would use it... so I just grouse a bit when RedHat'isms make life more
difficult.   (And the whole "we use it because it has commercial support...
ummm, that we've never used..." thing... heh.)

In other words, it looks like it's going to be a nice weekend!  To heck with
reloading boxes!  :-)  I'm gonna go find a back porch and a beer.  Hmm...
too bad the guitar's in storage... or wherever it wandered off to...?

I do think it's funny that RedHat fans have now grafted apt-get onto RH...
it had to happen someday.  (GRIN... poke poke... stir the pot...)... LOL!

Nate Duehr, nate at natetech.com