[opensuse] Thoughts On OS Betas
- From: Jerry Houston <jerry.houston@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 16:35:05 -0700
How well one is served by a beta distribution (of nearly everything, but
especially an OS distribution) depends on two major factors: (1) how
much of the system you actually use, and (2) how important the
particular machine is to you.
With regard to (1), the less of a system you actually use, the more
likely a beta distribution will work just fine. One of my laptops gets
used very lightly, for occasional email and web browsing. 10.3 Beta 1
was great on it. More drivers that I needed were built into the kernel,
and there was way less fussing around to get things working than with
the 10.2 release.
On another machine, 10.3 Beta 1 gave me sound from the onboard sound
card, which I never had been able to get working with 10.2. For the
first time, I was able to rip some of my CDs to .ogg files and enjoy
them through the fairly high-quality speakers connected to that machine.
On another laptop, 10.3 Beta 2 has enabled wireless connectivity for
the first time. That's a serious advantage for a computer that I can't
really use very well connected to an Ethernet cable.
With regard to (2), life in the fast lane definitely comes with risks.
Although being an early adopter of the newest distribution can be
exciting and rewarding, it doesn't make sense to install a beta on a
machine that's needed for serious work. Unless, that is, you're willing
to risk trashing a file system, or have a great backup system in place.
All it takes is common sense, and reasonable precautions. I just
finished reinstalling 10.2 on my Linux desktop machine, after I managed
to trash one of the disks with 10.3 Beta 1. For me, that computer is a
toy, one I built for the express purpose of experimenting with Linux.
With my /user area backed up on a separate drive, I was able to restore
my email and documents fairly easily.
Would I install a beta on a machine I use for serious work, and that I
can't afford to have out of operation? Heh. I'm not that dumb. But I
sure am enjoying the new openSuSE bits. I can't wait for the stable
release!
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