Hi. Just wondering if it is worth periodically doing dist-updates (or dist-upgrade, can't remember) to stay up-to-date.

I've had a hard time shaking the notion that updates slow down your system (a relic from my windows days). In Arch I often, but reluctantly do updates. But then I always end up spending a half-hour fixing stuff that breaks during the updates.

I'd just like some general opinions on updates and if they are necessary or recommended. Sorry if this is a stupid question with an obvious answer.

no such thing as a stupid question. I do full-upgrades closer together than waiting a longtime to upgrade. Something usually breaks when I was a long time to upgrade

buttcoffee wrote:no such thing as a stupid question. I do full-upgrades closer together than waiting a longtime to upgrade. Something usually breaks when I was a long time to upgrade

I tend to do the same. My upgrade timing ranges from almost daily on a few systems, but more typically ranges from weekly for my most frequently used systems to monthly for infrequently used systems. Any system that I have not used for longer than that gets an immediate upgrade as soon as I do use it, but it's also a candidate for replacement; if I don't use it, what is the point in keeping it? I test systems as I am interested in them, and when something else of interest comes up, I test it instead.

As for antiX, I have three of them installed. At least one of them gets upgraded every week at a minimum. Not all three necessarily get upgraded every single week, but all definitely get upgraded every month. Whichever antiX setup I happen to be actively using definitely gets regular, consistent dist-upgrades, and a dist-upgrade is my preferred upgrade method.

Using this kind of approach, I have about fifteen different operating system images used at least monthly on two portable systems (one a laptop), the other a 17" model that I hesitate to refer to as a laptop (even though it's on my lap now); it's more like a portable desktop; it's good, just big and heavy.

Hi. Thanks for your comments.

What about performance-wise? Do upgrades generally improve your system's performance (unlike in Windows)? What I love so much about AntiX is how lean it is.

I just did dist-upgrade and it said it wants to install 251"new" packages. If everything is working how I want it, why would I need so many additional packages? Sorry if I'm being a pest. Just trying to get my head around this.

antiX is 'rolling' which has the advantage of upgrading newer apps, libraries etc as they appear in the Testing repo. This keeps antiX up to date. The disadvantage is that the upgrades are regular and may break something. The longer a user leaves upgrading, the more chance of permanent breakage occuring, though it is very rare.

In terms of performance, I have seen no degradation with dist-upgrading, in fact, sometimes performance is better.

In principle, a D_U at a rolling-release distro like antiX, are processed according to the following scheme:

# Log out from the desktop environment
# In the text mode to go with Ctrl + Alt + F1
# Log in as root
init 3
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get clean
init 5 && exit

Compliance with this rule protects much of the danger of damage.
(A running X and installing essential system packages are often not tolerated!)

Finally, it is recommended that the package apt-listbugs to install.
Here I can both before, and during the D_U receive alerts for my system.

I hope my english is the meaning ...

While doing a dist-upgrade out of X is recommended by aptosid, it is not necessary for antiX, UNLESS users have installed a desktop environment such as kde/gnome/(maybe xfce). Doing dist-upgrade in init 3 is fine, ultra-safe. Doing it in fluxbox/icewm is safe too.
Personally, I use antiX-sid, dist-upgrade daily and don't like/use apt-listbugs. I also dist-upgrade in X and sometimes in init3

male wrote: init 5 & & exit

Interesting. Will try this since I have added other window managers.

Should the last line be: init 5 && exit with no space between the & symbols? I tried to run it as above and it errored. Took out the space and it seemed to work.

Yes.

&& Without spaces!

I was not paying attention, the translator takes the space. __{{emoticon}}__

init 5 && exit (or reboot)

Wow. Thanks guys. That's very clear. Cheers.

With my Debian-based distros, set to 'testing' ... I always do a dist-upgrade, every 3 days or so.

With my primary (for work) Debian OS set to 'stable' ... I tend to go longer (as squeeze does't get as many updates) and is noticably more stable - averaging, an upgrade, once a month.

All my OS-systems are Debian-based and use either Openbox or Fluxbox.