FC4->FC5 upgrade options

[Craig White]

On Fri, 2006-03-10 at 15:08 -0500, Gordon Keehn wrote:
> Jack Howarth wrote:
> 
> <Snip>
> > I assume the promised ability to do an archive and install ala
> > MacOS X hasn't made it into FC5. Is that correct? Linux is never
> > going to make significant headway on the desktop until we get
> > rid of the need to wipe and reinstall every time a system release
> > occurs.
> >          Jack
> >   
>     Why should that matter?  It's SOP for the other graphical operating 
> system.  The difference is that you pay $$$ for the privilege of 
> reinstalling it (and all your applications) from scratch.
>     Cheers,
> Gordon Keehn
----
am I missing something? I thought an 'archive and install' on MacOS X
was pretty much the same thing as wiping out everything but the /home
partition and thus, you had to re-install applications all over again.

As for the notion of wipe and re-install every time a new release...

- It's likely going to work for an anaconda upgrade.

- It's likely going to work for a yum type of upgrade but someone's
gonna be blazing the trail on this and come up with resolution of the
issues this is going to cause.

- There's a relationship between maintaining the status quo to achieve
easier upgrades and allowing for considerable changes which probably
complicate if not deter upgrades but have a more favorable impact on the
overall logic of the packaging itself and the philosphy of dealing with
that relationship is what defines a distribution, not necessarily Linux
as a whole, thus the argument about making significant headway on the
desktop is not necessarily a Fedora/Red Hat issue. One fact is never
going to change though...a 'clean' install is going to be entirely more
predictable than an upgraded installation.

Craig