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RE: [LUG] Intro



On 04-Nov-99 at 22:41:46 Peter Hatton wrote:
> I know the feeling - I worked for CS during the summer on the NT rollout!
> Should have been the Linux rollout :)
> 
I think most people here know my feelings over NT and microsoft
generally...:-) Unfortunately I don't see linux as being the desktop
- at least not at present or, probably, for some time. I *do* see it being
in labs around the Uni and, as in my case, the desktop for those that want
it - and can *administer* it. I hope the Uni, as a whole, will
appreciate what linux can do in as much as Mac's and unix are accepted as
much as windows 9x/NT (albeit that there is a 'battle' with unix/NT). There
is a big security issue at present with this (installing linux or any other
O/S), and one that I am trying to get the Uni as a whole to recognise through
a mandatory security policy. (off soap-box. Sorry.)

> If I was you, try and stick to 5.2.  When I did change to 6.0, my machine
> spent about a week in a bit of a semi-unusable state.  Maybe 6.1 will be
> better, but I dont fancy risking it!  Your best bet is to update the
> Kernel to 2.2.10 or later.  (Is the current version 2.2.13 or 2.2.14? -
> and does it having anything *new*)
> 
Ah, the age-old question - does it have anything 'new'. Well yes I imagine
it does. I doubt, although admit it is possible, that a company like RH is
going to put out a new release without *at least* some bug fixes. So what?
Well those bugs you are about to hit next week are all fixed in the latest
version :-) It was very much, although perhaps not so much today with
the likes of linux, that the first thing that will happen if you hit a
'fixed' bug is that the company (and this would apply to most of them) is
to say 'upgrade'. Second point is that there is probably genuine new stuff
in the release. Whether it is of any use to me depends on what it is.
Thirdly, they may well have broken some things that used to work :-( Always
a bummer. How serious it is depends on what it is (i.e. do I use it).

The upshot, imho, is that it is up to the person to decide. There are pros
and cons to upgrading, you have to decide if its what you want to do and, if
so, then prepare for some problems. As said, with linux bugs may well be
fixed in older versions but then where's the progress for me? What happened
to the 'leading edge'? For my part I'm glad to give it a go. If I trash the
system then, yup, I go back to 5.2 or 6.0. It'll be a bummer; take more time
than I'd like and will cause a lot of controlled swearing (kicking the s**t
out of my PC doesn't go down too well with the management! :-) ) But I won't
know until I try it. Alternatively if you don't like what you hear about
6.1, and see no real need for it, then sure stay with 5.2 which is stable
(and personally I've had no problems with 6.0). But if you expect to be able
to upgrade with *no* problems at all then you will have a long wait.

Personally, and I also do this at work, I leave new versions for some time
until others find out the big bugs - e.g. the duff RH boot floppy disks with
6.1. That, at least, prevents some of the more serious problems. But there
again, hats off to those that do upgrade immediately and find all those
problems for me :-) There have been many cases where an OS release has been
utter crap and upgrading was a disaster. Despite *some* problems with 6.1 I
haven't heard that it is that bad.

What the heck, if I upgrade then you can ask me if it went okay and if
everything works! If so then it may give you more confidence in 6.1? If it
really bombs out then you were right :-)

John.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Horne, University of Plymouth, UK             Tel: +44 (0)1752 233914
E-mail: jhorne at plymouth.ac.uk
Finger for PGP key: john at jhorne.csd.plymouth.ac.uk
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