Linux drove me to get a Mac

[Giles Orr]

2009/1/8 CLIFFORD ILKAY <clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>:
> Rolling upgrades as promoted by Debian and Gentoo are quite
> appealing in theory but I think in practice, especially on desktop
> systems which typically have many more packages installed and more
> points of potential breakage, they're problematic. I know Len is going
> to argue that he has been carrying forward his Debian since Paleolithic
> times but that really doesn't have much appeal for me any more.

He's not the only one: I have a laptop that started out as Ubuntu
"Hoary Hedgehog" (mid-2005) and has had command line aptitude upgrades
ever since, all the way through Ibex.  I've never had a significant
problem with an upgrade, and my machines are fairly customized.  I
have a desktop with a considerably longer history of in-place Debian
upgrades (since 2003).  Again, no significant problems.  Trust me when
I say that, because I haven't the ability to fix anything significant.
 I've had to spend 20 minutes a couple times patching scripts of my
own that broke because of version differences in software the scripts
called, that's about it.

I should admit that the one time I tried a graphical upgrade of
Ubuntu, it freaked completely because I wasn't using KDE OR GNOME, so
obviously my system was busted.  I just switched back to the command
line and had no further problems.

I find the post-install tweaking after a full wipe much more painful
than what I face after an in-place upgrade with Debian.  In-place with
Debian and Ubuntu has been so easy that the idea of wiping hasn't even
occurred to me for years - and that idea is what's kept me from
experimenting further with the BSDs, which seem to think that
"wipe-and-re-install" is the only way to do go.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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