Godric wrote: > > Matthew Dalton wrote: > > > > > The problem is not that Debian itself is out of date. The problem is > > that you can't get an upgraded Debian on CD. Not everyone wants to > > download hundreds of megabytes over their 33.6kbps connection to upgrade > > their systems to the latest stuff. > > > > It seems that Debian's greatest strength (apt, IMO) is also its greatest > > weakness. > > > > I know quite a few people who would drop RedHat and move to Debian if it > > weren't for the upgrade procedure. They don't want to spend hours > > downloading, they would rather buy the latest RH for a few bucks and > > select the 'upgrade' option in the install program. > > Just to say that some people - myself included - do not care too much > about continual upgrades and having the latest version of something just > because it is the latest version. We require a working system which does > what we want and which goes on working. When a stable release is > available, we consider upgrading, even if some see that stable release > as already outdated. > What is outdated anyways? If the system works, does what is required and > you have the latest security updates through the excellent apt-get, > there is no reason to *upgrade*.
That's fine, but you're not telling the whole story. True, some people want the latest release of Gnome and Enlightenment, and they don't want to download it they just want the install program to take care of it and they want it working in 15 minutes. There are some people however, who have the new Neo-fandangled-SuperVision2000 video card which is not supported in Debian Slink, so they opt to use RedHat 6.1 instead. This kind of thing is increasinly giving the public the impression that Linux is indeed forking and that "RedHat is better because it supports more hardware than Debian". They don't care that you can just point apt to ftp.netgod.net/x and get the latest X server. The need to upgrade is often hardware based, not "gotta be bleeding edge" based. Then there is the situation where you want a certain program, but the program developer provides only debian packages linked against potato libraries. What if this program is needed for the system to "do what is required"? I encountered this situation myself, but since I didn't want to subject myself to a lengthy upgrade process, I didn't bother with the program. You might ask "So why didn't the developer compile Slink deb's as well?". Good question. I suspect that developers like to have the latest libraries etc as well, which explains why this particular one was using potato. > It's a shame that some GNU/Linux and Debian people get caught up in the > commercial world of competitive and often frantic but mostly unnecessary > upgrades. That's the thing, I'm not just talking about "unnecessary" upgrades. There are situations where it doesn't matter too much about the latest stuff, such as if you are running a web site or a samba server. But there are situations where upgrading is a necessity. Matthew
