[kwlug-disc] Can OSs demand too much?

[Paul Nijjar]

On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 03:54:53PM -0400, Insurance Squared Inc. wrote:
>
> For example, you start off at mysql version 1.  You upgrade to 2 and the  
> system has to figure out what config file to use.  Then you go to  
> version 3 then 4 and everything in between.  End result, you've got a  
> current version of mysql, but goodness knows how the configuration file  
> is going to look like.  If it's a brand new config file, that may need  
> to be tweaked for your system.  If it's a munge of your config file from  
> version 1 then you can expect version 4 to barf on it.  You can tweak  
> this stuff individually on small upgrades but when you do a long span,  
> all manner of nonsense happens.

One reason that Debian releases take so long is because the
distribution pays a lot of attention to these issues. Generally it
will work from major release to major release (which is what, 5
years?). 

The tools to make upgrades smoother are not perfect, but they are
getting better. Having said that, I am not sure how often people do
major upgrades in practice.

- Paul