I have questions (for one of my machines, running ~amd64) whether it
is worth it to update/upgrade or whether to reinstall from scratch.
Another machine that melted down three months ago is being rebuilt
with a new motherboard, and new technology; I am installing from
scratch for obvious reasons in this case; but I would like to solicit
comments about my proposal to use only a straight stable version.
I'll try to be brief, but I beg in advance the indulgence of the list
for an overlength posting. And I apologize for going over territory
once again that has been covered elsewhere.
My ~amd64 machine has an extremely large number of packages, many of
them for multimedia viewing, dvd burning, editing dvds, graphics,
latex---a large variety of applications many of them which can be used
simultaneously at any given time. The system is amazing, and I
suspect that any other distro would fall over under this diversity of
processes. In particular, I have had good success editing videos with
avidemux---but only with the most up to date overlay! The machine has
gotten tangled into a knot that seems to be almost impossible to get
all the way up to date at one time. At least for me. I received
amazingly clear and lucid advice on how to get up to date, upgrade the
compiler, and rebuild, revdep-rebuild, etc., etc.; but with my
unreliable connectivity over the summer, I was unable to get the
machine to the absolutely clean state to start that process.
It took a tremendous about of time to setup all of these packages;
maintainence of the system also demands not only a fast network
connection, but also a lot of time. It's not going to be easy to
reinstall this system in it's current form. Perhaps it's necessary,
however. The usual advice about updating is something like "it isn't
necessary; there is no such thing as versions with Gentoo". But with
at least three major upgrade bugs to overcome (xorg-x11 /
nvidia-drivers; compiler upgrades; revdep-rebuild failures; changes in
network administration, to name a few issues) I wonder whether it
isn't just as easy to install afresh.
Because my time is taken up with teaching and leftover time should be
spent on science, I don't have unlimited time for system maintainence
Because one of my machines melted down in June, I am preparing to
reinstall Gentoo. My connectivity has been sporadic over the summer;
maybe it's improving; we might get a DSL soon at home. My home
machine was installed and maintained almost exclusively over a dialup
connection.
--
Alan Davis, Kagman High School, Saipan [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-670-256-2043
I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I
must share it with other people who like it.
--------Richard Stallman
--
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