On Sat, 09 Sep 2000, Daniel Woodard wrote:
How long can a version, say 6.4, go before it's just dangerously out of date?
In what way? Security? Is the machine connected to the net? With open ports? Servers? Or does it sit on its own? Behind a firewall? My old firewall ran 6.1 for a long time. Even after I had upgraded the machine behind it to 6.3. The firewall had everything that mattered updated but very little of that came from SuSE.
Assuming I keep the kernel moderately fresh, what are the major packages I need to keep my eyes on?
Depends on what matters to you. Depends on what you are running. The other thing is that new isn't always what you want. How long was gcc 2.7.xx the standard? Some times older is what you want.
I use it for mostly specific things. As long as it does those things well, do I even need to concern myself with anything other than major security updates?
Depending on how your system is setup you might not even need to worry about the security updates. If you only have trusted local users then you have alot less to worry about then somebody with a machine in a risky enviroment. I worry more about security updates for my firewall machine then this one. If the machine works now then you don't really ever need to update unless you want to run something new. IMHO one of the few reasons to upgrade is to get an upgraded glibc. Everything else you can just get the source and install yourself. It takes a little more effort then ftping a rpm from ftp.suse.com but it also means you can install the stuff that really matters to you without waiting for SuSE to test and make sure it doesn't break everybody else out there. Nick -- ----------------------------- Anybody got plans for an ark? ----------------------------- -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq