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Linuxcare: Arne W. Flones: Climbing Mount S.u.S.E.

With Linux, as long as you keep up-to-date on security
alerts you may never need to do a full upgrade. In spite of this, I
upgrade my computers at least once a year since this provides me
the chance to stay current on new distribution features and
applications.

“In this case, the upgrade is my big S.u.S.E. Box. I made the
effort to go from S.u.S.E. 6.1 to 6.3. Since I’m always twiddling
and fiddling with my systems, these affairs are usually uphill
battles. As a result, the distribution’s upgrade software had
better be good. Luckily for me, S.u.S.E.’s is….”

“It’s fairly stylish, but for the life of me, I can not
understand this fetish for graphical installation programs.
Installing operating systems from scratch isn’t trivial. Making it
look easy, doesn’t make it easy. This is why almost no computer
users install from scratch. Now, before you jump down my throat,
bear in mind that this is a program which, when it runs correctly,
will be run only once. (Unlike some operating systems, one doesn’t
need to keep reinstalling Linux to keep it running.) If Linux was
being installed by mainstream computer factories, maybe we wouldn’t
need our installation programs to be all dolled up like a street
walker on a Saturday night.”

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