A few days ago I received a call from a client, who I have known for several years, sold her a couple of linux boxes and solved several of her problems. At one stage she needed a new computer and I had nothing suitable in stock so she switched back to windows buying a new computer, but first virus problems 6 months in windows went and she was back on linux.
Her new problem, the system says your version of linux mint expires in xx days, you must do something.
My reaction was bring it round or update it yourself, so gave her the system how to do it herself.
But then refreshed my ideas.
What happens if you dont upgrade or update ……
I had one client ran linux mint 12 for several years well past its best before date, continued to work and still does I think as lost touch with him
With windows you must update or upgrade to keep security issues at Bay.
But not the same on linux, I have several clients still on mint 19, 32 bit running fine no issues, hardware not capable of running 64bit and no money to buy new machines. Just messages on an infrequent basis.
Windows is mandatory do the default and suggested update… it due security (Windows Defender) among other things … the drawback part is do a reboot
macOS it can be problematic for some specific Apps .. but for developers about HomeBrew (repository) is a “serious” problem because normally it offers support for the 2 latest releases. So if you had a very old release of the OS you are doom because you can’t upgrade a specific software. For example a Database. I had this situation years ago. If that policy changed I don’t have idea.
BTW https://www.macports.org/ is an option. I almost used but I changed the decision so was changed the HDD to SSD to install Ubuntu. It prior of a deep research to upgrade hardware (official docs of Apple indicates max ram is 8GB -it is not correct because was upgraded to 16GB) and know if is possible install and use Linux in a in peace. MacBook Pro (2012 in my case)
Linux it depends of the app itself, if the user requires a specific feature and it is not available for old releases then that is a problem. For example for Fedora it can be a serious problem. For example about Databases (MySQL and Postgresql). I am not sure how problematic can be a Web Browser. … BTW a PGP can be an issue?
The point is, all depends of each tool/software used by the final user.
My dad had a laptop with a win7 sticker on it. Those with HDD and iirc 2/4gb RAM. I installed Ubuntu to it when Win7 was too slow to even boot properly. Ubuntu was running fine (can’t remember version but kernel was 5 series so maybe 17-19?). I asked him years later does he use that laptop and he said no. So powered it on, Ubuntu running fine but I just cp the /home to an USB stick and removed the hdd and said him to recycle the laptop.
When we still had CD/DVD drive laptops I once tried an old Ubuntu.iso cd (maybe 12 / 13) and it booted and asked if I want to install it. Didn’t bother.
Maybe the question is why they work because they’re not safe and nobody should use old stuff at home. Servers maybe
slowly old browsers become incapable of reading new internet sites
I used to let Debian go for 2 releases before doing an fresh install. That is 4 years.
Then I realised that with rolling release distros you never do a drastic update … just a minor fiddle every week.
My TVHeadend server - a Pi3 running Stretch (Debian 9) hasn’t been updated for years now … it’s EOL anyway…
â•â”€x@telesto ~
╰─➤ sudo apt update
Get:1 https://linux-packages.resilio.com/resilio-sync/deb resilio-sync InRelease [2,272 B]
Get:2 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian stretch InRelease [41.9 kB]
Hit:3 http://legacy.raspbian.org/raspbian stretch InRelease
Fetched 44.2 kB in 3s (14.3 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'non-free/binary-armhf/Packages' as repository 'http://linux-packages.resilio.com/resilio-sync/deb resilio-sync InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'armhf'
I’ve got systems around the place (i.e. customers) that NEVER EVER get updated because the application vendor won’t support regular patching…
I will say - these are headless “server” systems - but I don’t really see the difference between headless server and graphical desktop…
And - I’m very lax on my own desktops about updates… and I NEVER let the GUI NAG screen run an update… GO AWAY I’M TRYING TO WORK!
With my desktop Linux machines - I only ever update through terminal and apt commands anyway… and probably rather infrequently…
I’m an old believer in “if it aint broken don’t fix it” and I miss the days where you only patched something if it actually fixed something that was BROKEN!
Most of the udpates for Linux are security updates as well.
As for Debian
So I let my systems regularly do the update.
Actually this is done automatically for me, however I take a snapshot of the system before every update, just in case…
I think it depends on everyone’s specific system and opinion, that there’s no “upgrade” or “not upgrade” for everyone. In my case, I have a Windows box I never upgrade. (Or, thanks to MS’ trash sorry, data protective BitLocker solution on a local account, can’t.) On my Linux boxes, it’s quite a different thing. I’ve ran a Fedora setup without any updates for 6 months, and it worked well. But if you patch your system ie for security updates regularly, it’s ok. And I think it also depends on your hardware and OS. No one that wants a stable computer on a 2000’s model is going to install Gentoo with ~testing repository and no binaries.
I won’t upgrade unless it becomes a necessity. I’ll do updates for security reasons . As long as things are working fine, I don’t need to climb another learning curve. When I first started with Linux in January 2017, I used Mint on my laptop. About 4 years later I got a new desktop (Intel NUK) and use that for my computing, such as it is. I tried to upgrade from Mint 19 last year but I could not do it on the 2009 Toshiba laptop. I gave it away and got a newer but used Dell laptop just to have a spare machine. Both my computers have Pop.os installed and I am quite happy with it.
Finally my clients has chosen to bring the computer in for the weekend of 15 May so at that stage plan to do a backup, then try running an update over night, if that fails will just do a clean install and then copy files back.
The thing most forget is sites visited and passwords to get back into them
There is of course several password managers that can be used. Then only one master
password had to be remembered. I use one and think it is a great tool.
That is not a problem for me, but for my clients who call me up several months later who cannot get to do something and ask me for their passwords, I always warn once installed I give them a card with the system password on it then it’s down to them to keep it. I had one guy 3 years later asked me what it was…..
No I am thinking of the client who needs upgrading betting is she has no idea her email or accounts passwords, I go to great lengths to explain I don’t have access to them and cannot transfer them, if they don’t know then I have no chance.
How about Firefox sync and you can see your passwords on your phone? I use it with my rig. If I log in into something and can’t remember the password I use my phone and check the password after fingerprint scan
Personally I use google password manager, but dont tell anyone on this site as so many are anti google, the password manager bas got me out of so many holes i like it, but I am lazy
