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> One thing about Arch, its possible to dig yourself a real bad hole if you don't keep updating regularly and I get that's sort of the point, but it can cause a

by jorams 5y ago

> One thing about Arch, its possible to dig yourself a real bad hole if you don't keep updating regularly and I get that's sort of the point, but it can cause a lot of issues if for example, you go on vacation for a few weeks. Any changes that could be problematic are announced on the site and the arch-announce mailing list. It's really not a matter of weeks. I've gone many months without updating, without any problems.

BiteCode_dev 5y ago
If I have to read doc or something online so that my OS stays usable, it's already game over
- jorams 5y ago
  If you don't update, it'll stay usable indefinitely. If you do, you can skim arch-announce in less time than it takes to keep up with the release cycle of any other OS. In return you'll never need to update a Debian release name in sources.list, click away a nagging update prompt, wait for a double-reboot cycle for some registry changes, or anything of the sort. Yes, you will need to understand what's on your system to know what news is relevant for you. You automatically will because you set it up yourself.
snarkypixel 5y ago
> Any changes that could be problematic are announced on the site and the arch-announce mailing list Yeah.. once I did a normal upgrade and it fucked my whole system. I asked for help and I was told that exact sentence "read the mailing list, it was announced". Thanks, but no thanks.
krageon 5y ago
> announced on the site and the arch-announce mailing list Perhaps there exists some subculture of folks that delight in having to read a set of articles published in the time between the last update and today before they do so again, but I have never encountered it.
- jorams 5y ago
  You really don't have to. If you're subscribed to the mailing you just get an email every month or two. Most of the time it either won't apply to you, or it'll just be a nice-to-know. Every once in a long time (last time for me was 18 months ago) you'll actually have to remember for the next time you upgrade. Otherwise you can just upgrade and you'll be fine. It's honestly incredibly low-maintenance. You just have to spend a relatively long time setting things up first.

by jorams 5y ago

BiteCode_dev 5y ago

If I have to read doc or something online so that my OS stays usable, it's already game over

jorams 5y ago
If you don't update, it'll stay usable indefinitely. If you do, you can skim arch-announce in less time than it takes to keep up with the release cycle of any other OS. In return you'll never need to update a Debian release name in sources.list, click away a nagging update prompt, wait for a double-reboot cycle for some registry changes, or anything of the sort. Yes, you will need to understand what's on your system to know what news is relevant for you. You automatically will because you set it up yourself.

snarkypixel 5y ago

> Any changes that could be problematic are announced on the site and the arch-announce mailing list Yeah.. once I did a normal upgrade and it fucked my whole system. I asked for help and I was told that exact sentence "read the mailing list, it was announced". Thanks, but no thanks.

krageon 5y ago

> announced on the site and the arch-announce mailing list Perhaps there exists some subculture of folks that delight in having to read a set of articles published in the time between the last update and today before they do so again, but I have never encountered it.

jorams 5y ago
You really don't have to. If you're subscribed to the mailing you just get an email every month or two. Most of the time it either won't apply to you, or it'll just be a nice-to-know. Every once in a long time (last time for me was 18 months ago) you'll actually have to remember for the next time you upgrade. Otherwise you can just upgrade and you'll be fine. It's honestly incredibly low-maintenance. You just have to spend a relatively long time setting things up first.