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by ExoticPearTree 42 days ago
About a decade ago I switched to Ubuntu LTS because of Debian’s “policy?” of having pretty old packages in “stable” and a long release cycles.

Nowadays, even with Ubuntu’s two year or so release cycle I have to use 3rd party packages to have up to date software (PHP being one) and not some version from three years ago.

We no longer live in a world (with few exceptions) where running a 3-5 year old distribution (still supported) makes sense.
1 comments
LtWorf 41 days ago
I am running debian oldstable on two rpi-based appliances i built at home. They have been working fine for several years.

I'll have to update them because eventually security updates will stop. That means that the python code on them no longer works on current python versions, C++ needs some tweaks because some library changed API.

Better to do these things every few years than every 6 months for no reason whatsoever.

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ExoticPearTree 41 days ago
> That means that the python code on them no longer works on current python versions, C++ needs some tweaks because some library changed API.

And this is why you update often, to keep up with the programming language ecosystem too. I have seen way too many times software unmaintained for years and then when it was actually time to upgrade it would take much more time to bring it to current framework versions than it would have taken if it was updated regularly throughout the years.

And I was not referring to hobby projects you do at home.

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LtWorf 40 days ago
> And this is why you update often

Updating often would mean waste time every year rather than every 6 years. Do we agree that 6 > 1?

At work they pay me so I'm there no matter what, but it's still a cost for the company to have me do that rather than something useful.

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