Re: [gNewSense-users] ytplay updated - playing Youtube videos on gNewSense.

[Justin Baugh]

> I also trust that they won't be able to pull it off, quite frankly.
> They can't even ensure clean upgrades from Feisty to Gusty and frankly
> I'm not sure I'd agree that TRYING to do that is a wise decision. I
> may be biased, having run Debian Sid for the past several years, but I
> have found that "user settings" are as often a cause of breakage than
> distro-supplied settings. That's why I re-install Debian every week,
> because without a fresh install you're not really getting the benefit
> for all of the minor (read: config) changes that take place - like
> artwork, cursors, fonts, resolution settings, sound configuration,
> file manager defaults and so on.

:OOO Sorry but this approach is insane. Or likely to put you there.

I agree with Yavor completely....The vast majority of these things are 
going to be handled by dpkg, and in the event that you modified a config 
file for a service, or whatever...You really should not be saying no to 
dpkg questions without examining the files in question first.

Although I agree that custom settings (i.e. my own custom version of 
/etc/wtf.conf) can cause issues when I go and dist-upgrade. When dpkg 
asks you about this, and you just yell "OVERWRITE MY WTF.CONF! NEVAR!!!" 
- you should, in general, expect problems.

Speaking of Ubuntu, it's rather possible to upgrade from Dapper to Gutsy 
in one go. You just have to be willing to massage it a little (i.e. deal 
with package name changes/removals/metapackage changes, etc). But it is 
possible, and it doesn't really require intimate knowledge of dpkg, just 
patience.

As far as upgrades go....I would wager that a wide majority of these 
issues are caused by people having Bob knows what in their sources.list 
- as well as using that godforsaken tool Automatix. Do you really think 
that legions of people who only use Ubuntu/Debian apt archives are 
experiencing problems doing dist upgrades? I dunno..maybe, but that 
definitely hasn't been my experience.

The biggest issue I've had in terms of Gnome and friends is when I take 
a very old home directory, say, from around Dapper time, and use it on 
something from around Gutsy time. Weirdness is almost always the result. 
But that's a user config issue, not a system issue, and should be 
handled by the user (or a tool made available to the user). I don't 
think it's the packaging system's job to make sure my gnome config files 
are understandable and usable by newer versions of programs - that's 
Gnome's job.

-Justin

--
Justin Baugh (baughj at gnu dot org)
Senior Systems Administrator
Free Software Foundation