Thank you for your realistic upgrade scenario in a nutshell. From my perspective opensuse is used in a production environment. Yes I know I should be purchasing SLED, however the direction I have chosen for my small company is to expose everyone to using the O/S and applications before we just about renounce commitment to M$.
Much has gone well with opensuse and I will commit funds to a Suse Network sometime next year. Being a research and non-profit organisation I have to take a great deal of care the money I can justify to enjoy computer applications to make life easy and profitable. In that sense all the data is not replaceable. I also have no choice but to upgrade each workstation and like other real world examples others users are also committed to upgrade installations. It is not a difficult concept that the major applications and data should still be there after the process and one which is realistic. The community uses opensuse for many reasons. Some of us like myself, are dependant on the package for our existence and I trust I am not alone, however I may be a little bit slow to move to SLED/S. Fortunately I have learnt how to retain all data we produce and duplicate it, in the case I have to do a new install and re-instate the data after. Its amazing the different type of users, using opensuse for totally different and sometimes opposing view points. For many the package is simply a tool of getting from A to B in a automated fashion and in a computerised environment. For others, the package is their total source of amusement and they just want to play with anything; and if they stuff up they format and re-install. There are other corporate testers - just interested enough in the package to integrate the O/S and main stream apps to perform token, but still critical aspects of their total automation. Then there are the O/S and command prompt poke it and see game. And some where a PC defines their life. Such is the spectrum we all see here in the list and with everyone's unique take on their expectations of the package; delivers/modifies/changes the evolution of Suse Linux (open or otherwise) into a product that corporate and missions critical consumers are now taking a big look at. There are Hardware vendors taking a big look at Suse Linux, and in each of our ways we have helped this along - well that's the hope I hold on too. G.T.Smith wrote: > On some occasions one does not have much of choice but to upgrade, and > it tends to be a bit quicker than building a new installation from > either backup or scratch. > > At the moment there are no data or configuration migration tools for > SuSE that I am aware of. Backup can be used as a basis for restoring, > but on multi-user systems this can get messy (especially if the base UID > is changed as it was a few versions ago). > > A new distribution will include newer versions of application packages > that will have particular upgrade issues related to that package. Most > will flag any problems, and detail known issues. To have SuSE testers > duplicate the activity of the the package testers and developers seems > to be a duplication of effort, and given we are talking several hundred > applications that is a lot of duplication. > > What really is needed are migration/upgrade notes compiler so that > people can be informed of what work will be needed on which packages, > before they embark on the upgrade. What could probably be useful is a > web page detailing the packages versions installed linking into the > relevant packages information on update requirements on the developers > sites, and any specifically SuSE related issues. What would be even more > useful is If a package update link database was setup, it would be > possible to generate update documentation tailored for a particular > installation. (The database bit is hard.... the document generator > relatively trivial...) > > > >
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