[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: RPM upgrade script



Alexander Indenbaum <baum@actcom.co.il> writes:

> 
> To add to distributions flame wars:
> http://www.freebsd.org
> 
> The only *right* way to do an upgrade is FreeBSD way to do it :{)
> 
> You need to sync with FreeBSD CVS sourve tree over internet ( you can also
> check out FreeBSD as it was for any date you want - not only the latest
> one  or releases ) And then you rebuild the *whole* OS and not only kernel
> with one make.
> 

Oh right. And all you get is a bare-bones system. Once you decide to
get anything from the ports the real game starts...

> <UNIX_WAY>
> This is the Unix way to do things!
> /usr/src# make update; make world
> 

Pretty good, huh? Now imagine a customer, having a U*IX desktop with
some "office solution". He doesn't have (since he doesn't need) a
development system. Now he wants to give a try to, say, a CD
player. How are you going to install it for him? And once he decides
to go for a better CD player, how would you uninstall the first one?

The world keeps changing. If Unix/Linux/"whatever *IX you want" tries
to stay ground without adapting to modern needs/achievments, it'll die
really fast. Making absurd claims, like "make is the only way", and
"users shalt be added by modifying /etc/passwd with ed" just shows
that you are not ready for the reality.

> With Red Hat we got sys admins that can not add user/change interface's IP
> without X Window and RH control-panel.

Then nobody prevents you from firing them and getting *BETTER*
sysadmins! The fact you get a lousy employee doesn't mean the O/S is
bad...


> </UNIX_WAY>
> 
> >From other hand gurus do not need to remember 'which libc goes with which
> kernel" and  "why can not I find standart header files"
> 

This means you don't understand the situation with Linux. It's an
*evolving* system - it changes every day. A feature that might have
taken a year from Novell to implement can make it's way into the Linux
kernel overnight. IMHO, it is the most amazing aspect of Linux. And it
doesn't come for free. The price is that things may get outdated
fast. In here the distributions come to help. You get it, you apply
patches as they get released and you use it. But nobody guarantees
that you may pick up a random package and compile in your system.

BTW, the "basic" stuff, like gcc, binutils etc usually gets updated
during the "unstable" kernel development.

> I saw lot Linuces  with broken c compiler and sendmail dated before I
> was born. System are not consistent because you can not update the whole
> system - you can only update RPM packages.
> 

Yes, because the system keeps evolving. If you want a system, which
doesn't evolve, go FreeBSD. You'll get a beautiful stable system,
which hardly can be used as anything but an Internet router/firewall.

> Unix user needs to know how to use make and does not need to know

I agree. But this shouldn't prevent a user from using BETTER solutions
as they get introduced.

> A lot of systems migrated from Linux to FreeBSD! 
> Not one the other way around.

Strange enough, I've noticed an opposite tendency... Again, if all you
need is a router, I'd recommend FreeBSD.

> I read in bugtraq they found security hole in telnetd. 
> To which packet does it belong? hmm...Netkit-libc5-ver0343-p343.(deb|rpm)? 

You go to the RedHat site and find it out. Or you try to exploit the
bug in your system. Trust me, that's *much* easier than comparing two
in.telnetd binaries from different machines and guessing why on the
earth they are different...


-- 
Alexander L. Belikoff
Berger Financial Research Ltd.
abel@bfr.co.il