Feature changed by: Ján Kupec (jkupec) Feature #308189, revision 3 Title: Consolidating terminology: update and upgrade openSUSE-11.3: New Priority Requester: Mandatory Requested by: Karl Eichwalder (keichwa) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: In the past, we just used the term "update" for all update related things, because we were told "upgrade" is suitable for hardware related upgrades only. With the advent of zypper, the term "upgrade" (dup, dist-upgrade) is back for upgrading the system complete from one version "n" to the next version "n+1" (yes, you can "upgrade" within one version, but that's a special case...). The term is fine and I'd like us to use "upgrade" in YaST and everywhere else where suitable. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: Avoid confusion. ATM, I'm forced to use different terms in the chapter of the manual, if I describe the same task. + Discussion: + #1: Ján Kupec (jkupec) (2009-10-23 12:03:06) + I'm not an expert on English, but my understanding of these terms as + should be used with software is as follows: + upgrade = installation of newer (major) version of a package or + distribution, which brings NEW FEATURES + update = installation of ANY NEWER VERSION of a package or distro + In short, upgrade is 'feature-wise', update is 'time-wise'. If we'd + agree on this definition, then: + * upgrades are a subset of updates + * bug fixes (e.g. openSUSE updates/patches), are mere 'updates' - they + should not bring new features + * distribution update is always an upgrade - it always brings new + features + So if one wants to emphasize that the update brings new features, s/he + should use 'upgrade'. In all other cases just 'update' is fine. + What do you think? What do experts on English think? -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/308189