According to Joshua Layne <joshua at willowisp.net>:
>
> There was an earlier comment about not allowing linking of something that I
> did not at all understand. I think it is ridiculous to have to flash a
> device to upgrade the OS when it is fundamentally debian under the hood,
> but I am also a stupid user and do not understand the subtlety of true
> linux gurism.
My initial response to the flash requirement was the same ("You've *got*
to be kidding me!") but there's one significant difference in N800 et.
al. that doesn't apply to Debian-based systems in general: extremely
limited storage space. An OS upgrade can require a lot of core packages
to be upgraded simultaneously (glibc, busybox, dpkg, apt, etc.) There's
simply not enough free space on a standard N800 to download everything
and install it all at once. Additionally, Debian upgrades get a huge
amount of testing resources which is probably not available to Nokia.
Combined with a long history of "just re-flash it" style upgrades in the
embedded industry, I can understand why Nokia made the choice it did.
The good news is that OS2008 should support more-or-less automatic
restores of your install packages, and Nokia is working on supporting
"real" Debian style upgrades, possibly for OS2009(?) (but I don't have
the link handy).
Steve
--
Steve Greenland
The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the
world. -- seen on the net
