On Fri, Mar 31, 2006 at 01:19:02PM +0200, Ulrich Windl wrote:
Occasionally I think: "It can only become better" (reason for upgrade)
The golden rule is still: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It can only become better" is wrong, because there is a second option to becoming better. It can become worse. Not having the ability to recieve security updates for software automaticaly is what I call 'become worse'. The system not doing what you expect ity to do, becayuse a feature has been remoced is what I cal 'become worse'. Security first, added stuff second. If not, you get software that is accessible from the outside world to use you as a spam proxy, for example. Or that breaks you system alltogether. There are other disadvatages, but the reason "It can only become better" is about the worst reason to update. What it implies is "It can get worse." Well, it can. It won't be the first time somebody tells: I had version 72.1723/282-626.d running and updated to 72.1723/282-626.e and now something else does not work anymore. The ONLY real reason to update is when things go from 10 to 11, because, MAN, it goes to ELEVEN!!!1!!!1
e.g. update from Firefox 1.0 to 1.5. Day that a security leak is found in 6 months. My 1.0 will be patched by SUSE (Thanks guys and girls) most peoples 1.5 won't be patched, because they asume YOU will do it for them.
Firefox 1.5 is expected to patch itself.
OK, bad example. Postfix a better exanple, or any other deamon? This is about the idea, not about each and every individual package. houghi -- Nutze die Zeit. Sie ist das Kostbarste, was wir haben, denn es ist unwiederbringliche Lebenszeit. Leben ist aber mehr als Werk und Arbeit, und das Sein wichtiger als das Tun - Johannes Müller-Elmau