Why was a kernel-2.6.34 pushed to updates that had un-addressed bugs. / Every OS sucks!

[John Morris]

> > So now I lost the only kernel package where everything worked.  And of
> > course Fedora doesn't have it anymore.  You can pick the original
> > package or the current update.  Triple crap!   If anyone has a pointer
> > to kernel-2.6.31.12-174.222.x86_64.rpm I'd really appreciate it!
> > Google, rpmfind, etc. all come up blank as did manually poking around
> > on the Fedora mirrors.
> 
> You mean this one:
> http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=157491

Thanks!  Was really hoping those old updates were still somewhere out
there.  Really hate self inflicted wounds, nice to know it wasn't
terminal.  Especially since someone else just joined my bug with the bad
news that F13 does have the same problem.  Looks like I'm going to be
stuck with F12 and that one working kernel for a while yet.  Not sure
what the plan is when the next major security problem pops after F12
goes unsupported but there is still a couple of months until that
problem becomes acute.

> I hoped venting helped you, but this is not the way to move
> things forward. I'd suggest more help testing, good bug reports..

Dunno, reported this one in March and it is still in NEW state.  

Reported #563417 in Feb and it is also in the NEW state.  Thankfully I
could work around it by binding a script to CTRL-F7 to fire blindly that
looks at the state of the dock and manually launches some xrandr
commands to force things into shape.  The panel picks up on dynamic
changes in screen geometry just fine so force it down to 1024x768, wait
a second or two for it to reappear then resize to the current attached
primary panel's size.

Not ready for Grandma but that one doesn't bother me as much as some of
the things I was ranting about because it is a bug in something that is
clearly a new feature.  The agility of xrandr has been amazing to watch
over the last few years.  Hopefully all the other bits like the panel
will catch up in another rev or two.  And maybe the system will even get
smart enough to remember where you put the displays and restore that
when the same external monitor is reattached.

Closer to my original rant is the snarky observation that the Gnomes
probably won't ever get around to fixing such a minor problem because
they are too busy ripping and replacing the whole desktop with an
entirely new set of bugs to care about fixing the few bugs in the
current code that is set to get tossed out anyway.

The problem I was ranting about is more about a growing fear of
upgrading, or heck, even taking patches for fear the bug being fixed
(which most of the time isn't actually biting ya) or feature improvement
(which you probably don't need) will also break your system.  What if a
critical mass of users decide that once they manage to get their system
working that the only safe course of action is to then disable all
updates.  If a bug does start biting hard check to see if that one
package can be updated without dragging in lot of deps, otherwise stay
put until hardware replacement time.  Where does that leave things?  If
normal users stop taking even the updates how does wide scale testing
happen?  I have 'beater' machines, I have QEMU, etc.  You probably have
similar.  Most people don't.  This isn't just a thought experiment;
Microsoft already faced the same problem and got around it by making
Windows Update (all but) mandatory.  How many people are still on XP?
How many IE6 hits are in your server logs?

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