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by nine_k 966 days ago
A rolling Linux distro would introduce minor, easy-to-address changes every now and then. This may be less pain overall (much like making many small pull requests vs one giant rewrite).

Disclaimer: I'm running a rolling-release distro (Void) since 2016, and has gone through 5 machines with it, usually with near-zero setup after a move.
2 comments
lnxg33k1 966 days ago
I also am on linux rolling, I use gentoo on desktop and arch on laptop, I update, things break, it's my fault, but would use the same approach for major non-rolling OSes updates, the point was not the amount of breakage, it's the breakage principle in itself, I am not sure why OP was blaming maintainer for breakage of major OS updates?
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garblegarble 966 days ago
>This may be less pain overall (much like making many small pull requests vs one giant rewrite).

Just shows how different people are in their approaches to dependencies... I can't imagine working like that, the idea that everything I'm using could break at any moment. I'd rather deal with those (possibly larger in number at one time) set of changes at fixed upgrade intervals, in exchange for having a stable system.

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nine_k 966 days ago
A stream of small changes is easier to migrate automatically, so you rarely see a need to update something by hand.

But when you do, the change is small, so you do your adaptation in 5-10 minutes, and continue with your day.

This is in stark contrast with upgrading from an LTS version, when the changes are sometimes drastic, and the changes are everywhere, so it takes some time to even figure out where to start. Because of that, such upgrades may be postponed, snowballing out of hand. I have a box that still runs old-old-oldstable Debian because of that.

A rolling release avoids this, while also bringing you fresh software faster. I get new releases of Gimp or Emacs within a week, and of Firefox, or stuff like git, usually next day.

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lnxg33k1 966 days ago
I have a system that is rolling doesnt mean i work on rolling, that’s why virtualisation exist, i develop in containers that represent preference of clients
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