Re: Fedora updates getting more like Windows every day

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Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 5:13 AM, Bill Davidsen <davidsen@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>> It's getting so keeping systems up to date with current patches is
>> incompatible with reasonable uptime goals. More and more upgrades
>> require a reboot, and even reading the CVE data behind the update it's
>> not always possible to tell if a fix is urgent. I'd like to encourage a
>> bit more detail in the info with the upgrade, and a little more thought
>> about what can be done to reduce reboots.
>>
>> More operations are specifying maximum outage figures, running 7x24, and
>> running things which have long run times and bad checkpoint code.
>>
>> At least two companies are done with reminding people to shut off the
>> desktop overnight, they are putting cloud software on desktops and using
>> cloud tech to offload mainframes. Not just new tech such as SETI@home
>> and folding use, but things like PVM. I was admin of a PVM group 21
>> years ago, but people are still using it.
> 
> If you subscribe to the package-announce list, you will get detailed
> emails about updates, like this one:
> 
> http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2010-August/044962.html
> 
I follow the RSS lists, but I'm very aware of this. But current policy is that 
if there is a fix marked as a security bug all net attached machines will get it 
if they run the software.

> This can help you decide if a kernel update is important for you. If
> it is not a kernel update then it will most likely not require a
> reboot. Everything else can be made functional through a service
> restart at most.
> 
If only that were true. But PackageManager disagrees. Quite a few things are 
marked to require reboot, and I have noted that at least some of them cause 
strange behavior if a reboot is not done.

>> To some extent RHEL suffers from this as well, though systems seem to
>> have fewer and more stable things running.
> 
> Same for RHEL too. You get information on pages like:
> 
> https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2010-0046.html
> 
> Customers also get emails with this information so that they can
> decide if they want to do an update or not.
> 
> To conclude, just because an update is available does not mean that
> you need to apply it. You need to do your own research and decide if
> an update is relevant for you. And on the point of comparison with
> Windows, there is none because you cannot really compare the amount of
> information given out on a Windows update as compared to updates for
> any Linux distribution.
> 
New functionality and bug fixes in stuff which "works for us" can be postponed, 
security bugs on exposed machines get fixed pronto, I can explain brief outages 
better than breaches. :-(

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen@xxxxxxx>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot
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