From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1R8bhZ-0007wj-Fv for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:44:18 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id DDE7B21C296; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:44:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-bw0-f53.google.com (mail-bw0-f53.google.com [209.85.214.53]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19C1B21C287 for ; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:43:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bkbzt12 with SMTP id zt12so9141643bkb.40 for ; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:43:09 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; bh=Bb+CcBXj/skmUJ5G33PjFlptvhoDcMyGNIhzvrzBuRM=; b=uk1xfk6KeWc5Jkk0ivQBn6f2CY6NQYpmBTvNRsQeNip7S9wSEYbc3xFVmMqRlOiWM2 LifmOe06hpi8g2MLkOohtRbFodJVC6CFFGRp20Ig08mtBS2Cv8eA1XQlRMMZpuJrtQWe DEe8sue2qHiG5xfNVbHOaTTHDwhnItyNJU6f4= Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.204.157.142 with SMTP id b14mr5165374bkx.337.1317145389222; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:43:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.204.177.199 with HTTP; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:43:09 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <6524150.hJIs8EZsLC@localhost> References: <4E80D466.7010804@coolmail.se> <1331399.V0JPsD72Y5@localhost> <6524150.hJIs8EZsLC@localhost> Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:43:09 -0400 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Slightly OT but interesting nonetheless... From: Michael Mol To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: 99c62c7052de27b4a0db28c8aecc5cd0 On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 1:22 PM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: > Am Dienstag 27 September 2011, 13:07:02 schrieb Michael Mol: >> Except they have drivers which are buggy and require backported fixes. > > and that is the reason stable series exist. They are stable and they backport > fixes. Exclusively. I hadn't even heard of these until Mark's email 20 minutes ago. It's useful information. You might have saved us some arguing if you'd presented it more specific and in an explanatory fashion, rather than dropping a noun and assuming it was specifically known. I assumed you meant the kernels maintained by distributions. Obviously, I was wrong, but Mark's email cleared that up for me. > >> The reasons might be that they're using an old software >> package which was abandoned, and taking ownership of the code isn't >> always sane. I was actually approached by someone in my area a couple >> weeks ago who was in just this kind of scenario. > > and if the system just works - why touch it at all? Because, in this case, the hardware, which is unreplaceable, went tits up. Meaning it no longer works. It can't be replaced, and they're SOL until they get the software ported forward. Their remaining hardware of the same vintage had already died on them, and they didn't have any migration path or hedge set up. Other reasons--and this is why I *loathe* unnuanced "if it works, don't touch it" mentalities--include security updates and migration difficulty in the event of *necessity* of upgrades. I know someone who's running Ubuntu 7.10 on a server that accepts incoming, public connections--because they got it working, and didn't even want to update to the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, because of a "if it just works, why touch it at all?" mentality. Eventually, they _will_ be hacked as a consequence, even if it's just from someone scanning the public IPv4 space with tools looking for vulnerable versions of software. The other general class of cases is something Gentoo users should be able to understand in the abstract; the longer you go without updating, the more difficult and expensive (in terms of time fixing incompatibilities from un{tested,supported} version jumps, at the very least) it becomes when you no longer have a choice. -- :wq