Kubuntu Alpha's

[Derek Broughton]

Sascha Güthling wrote:

> On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 5:33 AM, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Though I will make a complete new install for the final release I
>>> think the update would work too. The update system is smart enough to
>>> install all the new package and kick out obsolete ones. It's probably
>>> all the ongoing changes in the repositories that make trouble right
>>> now.
>>
>> No, Sascha, the update mechanism is not smart enough to "install all
>> the new package and kick out obsolete ones" from the alphas. Apt-get
>> only compares version numbers, and that is often misleading in the
>> alpha stage. You might get away with updating from an RC to the
>> released version, but betas and especially alphas should _not_ be
>> updated to production systems.
>>
> I don't understand what is wrong or misleading with comparing version
> numbers. If a newer version becomes available it will be installed by
> the update mechanism.

Precisely.  For once I find myself in almost complete disagreement with 
Dotan.

1) a dist-upgrade will, indeed, install the correct new packages if the 
desktop metapackage is installed.  It _may_ not properly handle certain 
other issues, which is why we have an upgrade manager now, but _those_ 
issues would occur when upgrading from an RC just as much as with upgrading 
from an alpha, which leads to ...

2) it can not _possibly_ be different to use apt-get/aptitude to upgrade 
from an Alpha or from an RC.

3) it equally _shouldn't_ be more of an issue to upgrade to a "production" 
system from an alpha using the upgrade-manager - though it strikes me as 
pretty scary to actually _use_ a system that's been running testing software 
as a "production" system.

> At the end (meaning after an update) the whole
> system should only contain the newest versions of all installed
> packages and obsolete packages should have been removed. So if the
> repository stays the same I should be able to update all the way from
> alpha1 to the final release. Right?

Of course you can.
-- 
derek