![](https://seccdn.libravatar.org/avatar/53da03da190b5b47bfb08479ba59ed5e.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
--- On Fri, 12 Oct 2001, Ole Kofoed Hansen wrote: --
What gives people the idea that they have to buy a new version 4-5 times a year?
Dangit, here I go again... I'm used to Debian Testing and Unstable distributions. Unstable (Sid) changes anywhere from 5-15 binary packages *per*day*. Testing (Woody) is a little less aggressive, but things still change more than two days a week. Why? Because Open-Source Software changes that quickly. Keep an eye on Freshmeat.net for a few days and watch what projects come around every couple of days. That said, SuSE is bar-none the most up-to-date commercial distribution available. They have always been among the first to release new packages, such as XFree86 4.x, KDE 2.x, and others. Along with the advantage of introducing packages fastest comes the burdon of keeping those packages current and bug-free. SuSE does this by releasing a new distribution every 3-4 months, and they do a very good job of it. Problems? There are some, but the high-cyclic rate of this software-selling machine gun exceeds the quality of all commercial competitors so greatly that the problems aren't problems for long. What compels people to buy *every* copy? Lots of things. For me, it was (past tense) the urge to stay current. For others, there really *are* pressing issues that come with libfoo-1.2.3 that was released with the last version, and they need it fixed. If your system works, keep it; it's your box. I'm sure that there are a good number of SuSE 5.0 (first glibc release?) machines that still run, and a numerable group of machines older than that. Nobody can tell you what runs best on your equipment but you. If you want to play the game of keeping up with the Joneses, though, there are entry fees, and I consider $40 per box every quarter one of the least expensive games in town. Hed Rat wants $90+ for a box released every six months that only offers mild upgrades and security fixes; which would you rather have? ===== -- -=|JP|=- Hit me! - http://www.xanga.com/cowboydren/ Jon Pennington | Debian 2.3 -o) cowboydren @ yahoo . com | Auto Enthusiast /\\ Kansas City, MO, USA | ICQ UIN 69 67 29 31 _\_V __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals. http://personals.yahoo.com