Updates available, what do they do?

[Chris Jones]

> I did a complete update and after it was done I even checked grub.conf
> before rebooting and sure enough my parameters for the kernel have
> been copied over!
> 
> BUT, the subsequent boot failed! After the very first graphics screen
> where the uesr gets a few seconds to enter the menu (which I didn't)
> the screen turns black and never returns to a usable state!
> 
> Had to reset the machine and start again, this time selecting the old
> kernel, which made the system boot normally.

Hmm, sounds like you where unlucky. Out of interest, what are the 
version numbers of the two kernels you now have, the one that works and 
the one which does not (grub.conf should tell you this).

One other minor comment.

I don't know why you chose Fedora, and certainly I do not wish to put 
you of using it !, but you should be aware that fedora is a distro that 
changes fast. As you have seen you get a lot of updates...

Generally speaking fedora is a good distro if you want to stay close to 
the edge in terms of linux development. Updates come thick and fast and 
they are not always purely for security reasons. Often it just to bump 
the version number to a new upstream release. Its generally accepted 
that occasionally things break in Fedora.

Fedora is not the best distro if you want a long term stable platform 
for a production environment. There are other distros which have a lot 
lower update frequency and longer support times.

Redhat Enterprise is an obvious example. But of course you may not wish 
to pay for it. However, this isn't needed. Redhat, by the rules of OSS, 
must release the source code for all packages in their distro. This 
means other distros can spring up, rebuild these rpms and provide 
effectively the same distro (renamed of course) for free. Effectively 
with RHEL you pay for the official support. Examples of these are Centos 
and Scientific Linux (which I use at work) but there are others. With 
these distros the updates are much less frequently, and only when a 
serious security problem demands it.

Just something to consider... One of these might provide you a more 
stable linux platform...

Chris