Avoiding fragmentation with a rolling release

[Loïc Minier]

On Thu, Feb 28, 2013, Mario Limonciello wrote:
> What about a rolling static base instead?  Do a unionfs (or similar) on top
> of it.  Deliver an encompassing image from month to month.  Turn off apt as
> a mechanism to deliver updates.  But allow it to be turned back on.  Even
> if you don't install anything on top of it, then every month a new static
> base comes up and updates it.  If you decide to do daily updates on top,
> some of them might be in next month's new static base already, so that
> would need to be handled gracefully.
> 
> Similar approaches are applied to Chrome OS and Android successfully.

I'm not sure how you'd deliver security updates between monthlies
though?


However these ideas would definitely make sense for e.g. deploying a
firmware upgrade on a phone or tablet!  On this topic, I would think we
would want to revisit how we manage various types of data: how does one
"reset to factory settings"?  How would one deploy an update from a
local file or OTA?

Plus we'd want these updates to be as small as possible; typically
deltas.  Would be a good win over downloading hundreds of megs of .debs
from one version to the next.

-- 
Loïc Minier