[NTLUG:Discuss] Fedora Core 5

[. Daniel]

>John K. Taber wrote:
> > I have FC3 installed and working fine as a lone user. Any advantage to
> > going to the latest, FC5?
> >
> > John K. Taber
> >
>
>Newer.  Eventually, holding on to FC3 will become harder and harder
>to do.  BUT, with that said, I've certainly pushed off upgrades
>of SUSE in the past... even waiting for them to drop totally
>off of support before upgrading.   It's nice to have a choice.
>But it is truly is a decision that you get to make and
>everyone's needs are different.

I can't agree with Cox enough on that.  The reasons for upgrading or not 
upgrading are as varied as the application of the OS+software and the 
person who uses them.  

But ultimately, it may get to the point that, in the persuit of other 
things that grow and progress, anything that is tied to it may also be 
required to be upgraded in kind.  Let's say for sake of argument that 
something has changed in your environment, say... something like a hardware 
failure for which there is no readily available identical replacement.  You 
might get the nearest equivelant or something far better, but in either 
case, your previous software does not identify or can not otherwise use the 
device which necessitates upgrading just that bit of software support... 
and as dependancies go, you need to continue on upgrading other components 
until you have something you are once again satisfied with.  This chain of 
events could easily be initiated by a security concern where an important 
vulnerability has been identified and you wish to avoid being attacked or 
compromised.

The only type of thing where I cannot imagine ever needing to upgrade is in 
the case of an appliance device for private use and where security or 
stability are not concerns.

My mail/web server box has FC4 on it but also is running sendmail which has 
been identified with a critical vulnerability.  I now wish to upgrade that 
box to FC5 (or simply upgrade sendmail if the upgrade is available to it).  
So the way I proceed from here depends on how much other connected issues 
will require changing along with it.  Eventually, however, I will need to 
upgrade the box's software.  It's a question of how much motivation is 
required before I take the action.

Is there something you cannot do with your FC3 installation and FC5 can do? 
 In my case, my FC4 loaded laptop can only suspend to RAM without my going 
through all the trouble of configuring and compiling my kernel which, while 
I am perfectly capable of doing so, I really prefer not to given that I 
also depend on other aspects such as precompiled device drivers and 
what-not, creating that cascade of upgrading/compiling events that I would 
just rather avoid.  FC5 will suspend to RAM and to disk "out of the box" as 
it were and so eventually, I will do the work necessary to install FC5 on 
my laptop.  

In any case, it's partly a matter of choice/preference and partly a matter 
of necessity or eventuality.  It doesn't do much to answer the question, 
but I hope it helps you to better understand the question itself so that 
you can choose an answer that best fits you.