whining, clarified

By basd on Apr 25, 2009 | In kde4, opensuse

My blog details, among other things, my travails with KDE4. Which, yes, is my primary work desktop (except such times as my primary work desktop is KDOMOWS or some other hybrid). And yes, I know some of the breakage is to be expected since I use OpSu "factory" repositories.

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But, a recent post on Planet SUSE has emphasized that users of the factory repository should EXPECT breakage.

This underlines a defect in the "release" approach to linux -- and why I am presently experimenting with Arch/Chakra. KDE 4.2 is in the current KDE release. But, OpenSUSE 11.1 incorporates KDE 4.1. So, to remain "current" with KDE, it is necessary to use OpSu factory repositories. Or alternatively, to stay "stable" with OpenSUSE, it's necessary to remain at KDE 4.1.

A rolling release, on the other hand, should allow users to stay more current with the release schedule of the underlying packages.At the moment, I'm very happy with my Arch KDE 4.2 install -- and I have not chosen to put any "testing" repositories into the mix. My goal at the moment is not to be a "tester," but to be cutting-edge stable.

I'm also wondering whether to use distro packages such as OpenOffice and Firefox -- or to use the installs direct from the software organization. Both of these will auto-update directly. But, the distro packages lock the auto update and so we wait for the distro to "catch up." On the one hand, package managers are very useful at maintaining dependencies and for uninstall. On the other hand, dropping Firefox or OpenOffice into /opt and letting it self-update has never been a problem for me. I have done this at various times on distros such as Puppy, OpenSUSE and Kubutu.

But -- the Firefox release notes are reporting my "Gran Paradiso" version as "obsolete" and telling me it should be updated. Gee! Now were are talking obsolescence in hours rather than days -- I think the GP build is 4/21/2009!

Back to the rolling release concept -- there is some risk of breakage in a rolling release -- and it is way too early in my experimentation to know what will happen if I have to reinstall to solve breakage problems. As noted previously, I have already reinstalled ONCE because my first install had issues. But, this was a clean install and I would like to be able to solve breakage without having to archive and restore all of my settings and working data.

Why stay current anyway? Isn't "stable" good enough? And the answer (for me) is that linux moves forward by leaps and bounds. At the same time, projects die and are replaced by something new. THE NEW TOOLS ARE ALWAYS WAY BETTER. And yes, it is very worthwhile to suddenly be able to dispense with a "work around" because the new package, system, whatever now no longer requires "work arounds."

Six months is an eternity in the linux world. Whereas, I still have WindowsXP running on my answering machine computer -- which also is there when I absolutely have to run some proprietary software orother. I also have Vista, because the cheap new computers I buy always come with Vista (gratis). But unlike linux, Windows consistently becomes cludgier as the updates come pouring in. Whereas -- my new Arch linux runs better on my dinosaur computer than Windows ME ran on it when the thing was brand new.

From the search strings that make it to my blog, it seems that an occasional post provides some information that users are looking for -- sometimes over a lengthy period of time.

So, sometimes whine is not too bad if it is properly bottled and aged.

And in other news:

My next project (might be) a portable linux. Some weeks ago, I lost my 4 GB flash drive. I think it is somewhere on premises, but I cannot locate it. Dang.

But, I was at Costco yesterday and they have a 16 GB for $35 or so. Are you kidding me? A lot of linux can go on 16 GB.

Then there is the thing about learning to create a ramdrive for all the /tmp files. That makes them "volatile" so they will disappear at power-down.

Many steps to go, so little time to sleep.

Thank you for visiting and have a pleasant tomorrow.