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It's such a stark contrast, my home servers just run unattended-upgrade (on Debian) with no problems, I just do the major version upgrade every year. Meanwhile

It's such a stark contrast, my home servers just run unattended-upgrade (on Debian) with no problems, I just do the major version upgrade every year. Meanwhile everything consumer and most enterprise is as you said, "don't upgrade if it is not broken, else you WILL feel pain". Companies basically trained bad security habits into their user base

phoronixrly 11mo ago
Do you do the major version upgrade the minute it's announced? Be honest.
- doubled112 11mo ago
  On my home server, sometimes I do take some snapshots and upgrade a few VMs and LXC containers. Sometimes I even run testing because stable will be out shortly and I don't feel like upgrading. It's a very different experience to the single Windows laptop in my house, where the latest stable is always subtly broken in ways I notice. Last week the top half of the taskbar disappeared for an evening, for example.
- bitwize 11mo ago
  Once a new major version hits stable, it's been hammered on quite a bit. Debian has a reputation for being behind the curve, for this reason.
- ndsipa_pomu 11mo ago
  I admin a bunch of Ubuntu servers and I tend to do a major version upgrade on my laptop and then some low priority machines to see if anything has changed. Typically, the only issues I've had is when there's dropped support for older SSH/SSL protocols which is easily fixed. However, Windows Update isn't doing a major version upgrade as far as I know - it's the equivalent of doing a kernel upgrade in Linux. Also, the typical Linux upgrade command will also pull in updates/fixes for pretty much every bit of software in the system, whereas Windows Update will ignore user installed software as far as I know.
- wing-_-nuts 11mo ago
  debian stable? Yes. Debian stable is tested to the point that it's fossilized. Besides, we're not even talking about a major version update. We're talking a minor one, and the last time I'd had a simple update break linux was when arch was shipping the master branch of grub. (The dev and I had words over this practice, which resulted in me going to another distro)
- alternatex 11mo ago
  He did say Debian, being stable is the one thing it's good at.
- ptx 11mo ago
  The point is that you don't have to: the unattended-upgrades part is separate from the major upgrades. You still get security updates for the previous stable release for a while after a new stable release, and the security updates can safely be installed the minute they're announced without bringing in unwanted features changes.
- luz666 11mo ago
  Since I switched to nixos some years ago, yes. My fear level dropped from 80% to 1%.
Saris 11mo ago
Yeah Debian is really stable because its so far behind the current releases, lots of testing has been done by the time it updates a package. Great for servers and stuff you just want to set and forget with auto updates.
- jayd16 11mo ago
  Ironically, servers should be the most disposable and easily to replace from scratch after a bad upgrade but the world is a silly place.
  - doublerabbit 11mo ago
    If hardware is failing fair enough. If you can't restore bare-metal within two hours then you're doing something wrong.
- eikenberry 11mo ago
  It is equally great as a workstation when combined with a development environment manager with package installation like devenv or flox (or many other options). This combo gives you a stable (not-changing) platform with up-to-date tooling. Best of both worlds.
  - Saris 11mo ago
    It's also why I'm a fan of atomic distros, easier to roll back from a major bug like my login screen no longer functioning.

phoronixrly 11mo ago

Do you do the major version upgrade the minute it's announced? Be honest.

doubled112 11mo ago
On my home server, sometimes I do take some snapshots and upgrade a few VMs and LXC containers. Sometimes I even run testing because stable will be out shortly and I don't feel like upgrading. It's a very different experience to the single Windows laptop in my house, where the latest stable is always subtly broken in ways I notice. Last week the top half of the taskbar disappeared for an evening, for example.
bitwize 11mo ago
Once a new major version hits stable, it's been hammered on quite a bit. Debian has a reputation for being behind the curve, for this reason.
ndsipa_pomu 11mo ago
I admin a bunch of Ubuntu servers and I tend to do a major version upgrade on my laptop and then some low priority machines to see if anything has changed. Typically, the only issues I've had is when there's dropped support for older SSH/SSL protocols which is easily fixed. However, Windows Update isn't doing a major version upgrade as far as I know - it's the equivalent of doing a kernel upgrade in Linux. Also, the typical Linux upgrade command will also pull in updates/fixes for pretty much every bit of software in the system, whereas Windows Update will ignore user installed software as far as I know.
wing-_-nuts 11mo ago
debian stable? Yes. Debian stable is tested to the point that it's fossilized. Besides, we're not even talking about a major version update. We're talking a minor one, and the last time I'd had a simple update break linux was when arch was shipping the master branch of grub. (The dev and I had words over this practice, which resulted in me going to another distro)
alternatex 11mo ago
He did say Debian, being stable is the one thing it's good at.
ptx 11mo ago
The point is that you don't have to: the unattended-upgrades part is separate from the major upgrades. You still get security updates for the previous stable release for a while after a new stable release, and the security updates can safely be installed the minute they're announced without bringing in unwanted features changes.
luz666 11mo ago
Since I switched to nixos some years ago, yes. My fear level dropped from 80% to 1%.

Saris 11mo ago

Yeah Debian is really stable because its so far behind the current releases, lots of testing has been done by the time it updates a package. Great for servers and stuff you just want to set and forget with auto updates.

jayd16 11mo ago
Ironically, servers should be the most disposable and easily to replace from scratch after a bad upgrade but the world is a silly place.
- doublerabbit 11mo ago
  If hardware is failing fair enough. If you can't restore bare-metal within two hours then you're doing something wrong.
eikenberry 11mo ago
It is equally great as a workstation when combined with a development environment manager with package installation like devenv or flox (or many other options). This combo gives you a stable (not-changing) platform with up-to-date tooling. Best of both worlds.
- Saris 11mo ago
  It's also why I'm a fan of atomic distros, easier to roll back from a major bug like my login screen no longer functioning.