[kwlug-disc] What's the best desktop distribution?

[Raul Suarez]

I think it is a matter of scale:

How many people ($$$) do you affect if something goes wrong with just one bad update.

e.g. If you update something and your Website stops working: What is the impact. 

- If it is you and a couple of people, that's manageable, 
- If some of your clients are inconvenienced by it, well, some PR and alternate means of communication may me required.
- If your business would loose a critical function and affect a large number of clients or has a large $$$ impact, then you really don't want to be in that position. You check each update, test your application in a test environment before applying to production and ensure that you have a record of what was applied when, so if there is an instability you know which update caused it. Change Management.

Raul Suarez

Technology consultant
Software, Hardware and Practices
_________________
http://rarsa.blogspot.com/ 
An eclectic collection of random thoughts


--- On Thu, 2/4/10, Insurance Squared Inc. <gcooke at insurancesquared.com> wrote:

> From: Insurance Squared Inc. <gcooke at insurancesquared.com>
> Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] What's the best desktop distribution?
> To: "KWLUG discussion" <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
> Received: Thursday, February 4, 2010, 11:16 AM
> 
> 
> 
>   
> 
>  
> You folks do all this?
> 
> 
> 
> Like I posted before, I've got an applet that runs on
> my desktop that
> turns red when there are updates.  I click on it, and
> it updates (I get
> to see the list first).  
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, it can all be done automatically in other ways, but
> the way
> mandriva does it suits perfectly for a desktop user. 
> It completely
> seperates the 'how' from the 'do'.  
> 
> 
> 
> And since I run the same distro on my desktop as I do my
> servers,
> whenever I do a desktop upgrade, I just hop onto the server
> and type
> 'drakconf' from the command line and I've got
> the same upgrade process,
> just minus the red alert.
> 
> 
> 
> I can't imagine doing it any other way now.  I get
> automatic updates,
> without having to think about how it happens, and the
> ability to select
> what packages I want to upgrade, and when.
> 
> 
> 
> (and btw, not that an end user cares, but during the
> installation, it
> automatically grabs the mirror nearest me and uses that
> repository. 
> And since I'm a paid subscriber I've got access to
> some additional
> repositories, and it sets those up automatically during the
> install as
> well. )
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> john at netdirect.ca
> wrote:
> 
>   kwlug-disc-bounces at kwlug.org
> wrote on 02/04/2010 10:48:23 AM:
>   
>   
>     
>       One might argue that there is separate software
> for that in Windows.
> Windows SMS, or MOM (is it?) And there are 3rd party
> packages. Those, 
>       
>     
>   
>   also
>   
>   
>     
>       provide monitoring for patches and AV updates.
> The Linux package 
>       
>     
>   
>   managers
>   
>   
>     
>       don't monitor. 
>       
>     
>     They can be set to update automatically.
> 
> Just put this in cron.
> 
> aptitude update && aptitude -y safe-upgrade  
> 
> However, as you said, I like to see what changed and decide
> to update 
> when it is convenient for the client (and for me), not
> blindly go and 
>     
>   
>   update.
>   
>   
>     There is also apticron, which I use on all our
> servers and for client 
>     
>   
>   servers.
>   
>   
>     It runs once a day overnight and reports back if
> there are any 
> updates pending,
> in an email.
>     
>   
>   
> Automating update attempts is easy enough. Knowing if they
> are successful 
> is another thing. The email reports are easy to do, but
> it's hard to get a 
> quick view of the current state, it would require sifting
> through 
> potentially lots of email.
> 
> I'm playing a devil's advocate here and posing
> comments as MS-oriented 
> admins might. And it doesn't really matter. There are
> proprietary tools 
> that work with MS and Linux to monitor and update. Some of
> these tools are 
> pretty slick in that they know which updates are needed for
> Windows. It's 
> something that would require monitoring MS patches and
> writing custom 
> Nagios configs for otherwise.
> 
> 
> John Van Ostrand
> Net Direct Inc.
>  
> CTO, co-CEO
> 564 Weber St. N. Unit 12
> map
>  
> Waterloo, ON N2L 5C6
>  
> john at netdirect.ca
> Ph: 866-883-1172
> ext.5102
> Linux Solutions / IBM Hardware
> Fx: 519-883-8533
>  
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Glenn Cooke
> Insurance Squared Inc.
> (866) 779-1499
> www.insurancesquared.com
> 
> Insurance Agent Discussion Forum:
> www.americaninsurancebroker.com
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
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