JEOS LAMP Server - 8.04LTS or 9.10?

Preston Kutzner shizzlecash at gmail.com
Wed May 6 14:36:19 UTC 2009


On May 5, 2009, at 11:15 PM, NoOp wrote:

> While long an advocate for LTS, I'd add that it is a serious pain to
> transition/upgrade from an LTS to a non-LTS later on. There seriously
> needs to be an upgrade application that will allow someone to do this.
> Example: just upgrading from hardy 8.04 to Jaunty 9.04 is a two day
> process for a single machine. I am in the process of updating several,
> and on my primary hardy machine (2.4Ghz/1GB ram) just going from hardy
> to intrepid has been an all day process (still not finished); I  
> started
> around 10:00 this morning, it's now 21:00, and I am just now getting  
> to
> the nvidia driver install so that I can change the video to a  
> reasonable
> screen resolution. Not to mention that I have to train the user how to
> restart the machine using System|Shut Down instead of clicking the
> little green guy who seems to have lost his viagra and only provides
> 'Log out' and 'Switch user' options. Tomorrow will be: 1) fixing
> intrepid so that I can upgrade to jaunty, 2) spending yet another day
> (at least) upgrading to jaunty.

NoOp,

Were you using the LTS version for a server installation, or desktop?   
I can't quite tell from your post.  I would definitely say that if  
you're using it in a desktop role, that going with the non-LTS release  
would probably be more advisable.  I was recommending LTS purely for a  
server role.  Most IT houses generally like to wait a little longer  
between release upgrades, so the non-LTS's 6-month release cycle is a  
little too frequent for them, even if you do extend it out to the 18  
months that Charlie mentioned.  Smaller shops could probably get away  
with this, but larger shops would probably be reluctant.  Good point  
about moving from LTS to non-LTS, though.

As a side-note, I'm running a couple of servers here on Intrepid that  
I'll be upgrading to Jaunty in the near future.  I'll actually be  
doing an upgrade (as opposed to a wipe and install).  Any caveats  
you've run across while upgrading?  I know you're upgrading LTS  
versions, but there might be some relevant "gotchas" to look out for.   
In the past, I've only done wipe and install, as I find it to be the  
cleanest and least problematic upgrade route.

>
> Bottom line (IMO) is to *only* do LTS if you don't plan to do any
> further application upgrades until the next LTS. Also, only do it if  
> you
> can tolerate having software that is months/years out of date (OOo,  
> etc)
> with minimal security updates. LTS is of course there for a reason -
> stability. But just keep in mind that sometimes 'stability' is like
> buying an old reliable car; it may run forever, but somehow lacks
> features that come out in later models: airbags, updated seatbelts  
> (you
> get the lap belt instead of intelligent shoulder harnesses), disk
> brakes, in dash blue-tooth toothbrush & hair brush, etc.

Again, I would definitely agree with this for desktop / workstation  
use, or on a server where you're using a desktop environment as well.   
I think it's less applicable to a single or limited purpose server  
installation.  For that, you really want the stability and longer  
usability window that LTS affords you.

-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?





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