Re: What Is Linux?

Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
[...]
But the open source tools are workable, get repaired faster, tend to
be more secure, and allow you software to evolve in a way the
commercial stuff doesn't. And you don't fall off the support bandwagon
or have the company shut down and leave you unable to keep your tools
working. This is a huge, huge, huge issue for critical applications.

Nico,

Maybe you don't consider fedora itself "open-source tools," but I am
having issues with your support statement with respect to fedora proper.

I've been with fedora since fc3 (I'm currently on fc6) and what I'm
noticing is a troubling "upgrade from a dead distro version" mentality.
For an os that comes out with a new distro version every 6 months, this
isn't an option for me. It simply takes too much of my time to install
the OS and reconfigure all the various third-part components (e.g.,
getting the right version of firefox, the flash player, postgresql,
pgadmin3, etc.).

I think the current rpm structure that ties everything to a distro
version is hamstringing the project. Why can't we have a package
architecture that is based solely on the application/tool dependencies
and not the distro version? Yes, there are dependencies, but they
could be handled by rpm, no?

And It Would Be Very Nice(TM) to be able to simply type

yum update fedora

when we want to upgrade distro versions. Boom - no reformatting the hard
drive, restoring backed up user directories, reconfiguring applications,
etc., etc. Just upgrade and you're done.
--
% Randy Yates % "I met someone who looks alot like you,
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC % she does the things you do,
%%% 919-577-9882 % but she is an IBM."
%%%% <yates@xxxxxxxx> % 'Yours Truly, 2095', *Time*, ELO
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com
.

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