Upgrading to Edgy Eft

[Chris Neary]

On 27/06/06, Mario Vukelic <mario.vukelic at dantian.org> wrote:
> I don't think people get upset about this at all. But I think what does
> upset some people is if users upgrade to edgy, then post to the list
> "something is broken, I have package conflicts", and ask for help.
>
> Some people seem to think that it's a certified right to use a working
> unstable dist very early in the cycle, and that is has to be possible in
> Ubuntu because it worked in Debian.

This marries up with what I meant to get across as my point - I've no
problem with people using Edgy now, but I'm baffled as to the mindset
of people who upgrade to it before it's released and then magically
expect (in my eyes) everybody to know why their newly (better than
new) upgraded system won't work.

There are a lot of people on this list helping each other out (which
is a great demonstration of the spirit of ubuntu, and Ubuntu itself in
turn) and I wish I had the patience and guts to be on the cutting edge
more so I could also help with not just the current 'mainstream'
version -- when I was seeing messages about certain things broken in
Dapper I wanted to help out but all I could reply was 'Well, I'm still
using Breezy, but...' -- I'm very strict when it comes to upgrading -
it's a big thing for me because I have a system that is already
off-kilter with itself with regard to packages that Synaptic refuses
to be able to update (and tells me so every time I install anything
through it).

I also run stuff on my Ubuntu box - I don't just play with it. If an
upgrade makes my computer go mammaries-up, that means I'm down one
working computer, which incidentally acts as a Samba, FTP and Web
server for certain things and people. I'm the kind of person that,
when Dapper is all sorted and working, I'll be happy with the 3-year
desktop support - and will probably ignore Edgy altogether, sticking
to my incidental/occasional updates from within Synaptic.

In summary, I would assume that this list is to be used like the
Dapper board in UbuntuForums is used now (and the Breezy board when
Breezy was released; likewise for Hoary) and perhaps if its not a good
idea to post to the -dev list (say the bug has already been reported)
then an alternate list may need to be set up, like the Dapper board on
UbuntuForums was prior to its release, or how the Edgy one is now (if
there is one yet).

Also when people ask for help after breaking their Ubuntu it feels a
bit like 'I upgraded ahead of time to the unstable version and XYZ
doesn't work. Please do the same so your XYZ (and possibly your ABC,
123 and ZXYCBA) also breaks so you can help me'.

Is it really bad for me to agree with the point that if you upgrade
your main Ubuntu box to an unstable version (and by unstable I mean
'it doesn't really work yet' as opposed to 'we're being Debianist
about this and leaving it marked "unstable" even though it probably
all works rather nicely' ) with the actual intent to start using the
unstable version rather than just see if it will work on a dummy box,
you need to accept anything that doesn't work because it's an
_unstable_ release?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with trying a dummy upgrade on a box
that doesn't really matter of course. That's the fun bit.

Discuss. ;-)

Chris