Thought - Delay auto-updates of software to reduce downtime

[Brandon Holtsclaw]

On Tuesday 19 September 2006 19:25, Shawn McMahon wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 19, 2006 at 01:38:18AM -0500, Brandon Holtsclaw said:
> > 1) Now how do you tell a user there is a fix in the archives but they
> > cant have it becouse the updates are stagered
> > 2) once the "users" or most anyone finds out they can change this setting
> > they have been branded to "always run the latest stable" and thus will
> > lower the update threshhold to the minimum right away
> > 3) #2 would then create a false sense of "cushion" for those that push
> > the updates thinking it will potentialy only affect N users if something
> > is bad but in reality 80% or better has lowered their threshold to get
> > the update right away.
>
> This is a solved problem.  Lots of companies have updates for specific
> problems that are in the testing pipeline, but are cleared to give out
> to customers having the specific problem.  So what you say to this
> customer is:

( you sniped my comments showing the flaws in HIS way, I know the current way 
with <stable>-proposed works )

>
> "Ok, sir, we've got a fix for that which hasn't finished testing, but I
> can give it to you to see if it fixes things for you.  What's your email
> address, and I'll send you the exact commands for you to cut-and-paste
> to get this file and load it?"
>
> Followed by an email that says to open a terminal window, run wget, and
> then sudo the package manager to load the patch.  Ideally follow with
> the commands to make sure the right package is loaded and to test to see
> if the problem has gone away.

that sounds alot like a corperate help desk, i'm talking about actualy in the 
trenches on IRC helping someone like may of us do daily

point is/was yes you can tell someone on irc to do those same commands like in 
the followup email but then all it takes is a __loud minority__ ( the forums 
come to mind ) or a well read blog to say "here even though its not official 
you /should/ do it this way" and that gets blown out of the water

the <stable>-proposed pocket and with QA on it will be a much better step 
forward

-- 
Brandon Holtsclaw
imbrandon at kubuntu.org
http://www.imbrandon.com