On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 05:55:33 -0500 Paul Morgan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 07:53:13 +0800, Dan Jacobson wrote: > > > [Say] we can't do apt-get dist-upgrade over our puny modem. We must > > go to town to burn the files onto a CDROM and take them back to > > install it. > > > > Sure, we could do apt-get dist-upgrade --print-uris, or use apt-zip, > > but that creates a list that gets stale in the few days it takes us to > > get to town... we'll miss the latest upgrades. > > > > Therefore there should be an "apt.debian.org" web server to compute > > what we need on the spot. One would give it various detail about our > > machine, and a sources.list and e.g. dpkg --get-selections output... > > all of which we have taken to town. It would spit out a fetch list of > > URIs. > > > > OK, I suppose 99% of people are better connected than my scenario, and > > perhaps this is only applicable to the third world. > > I have been using debian for a number of years. I have done several > installations from scratch as I have built new machines. I have done > *all* installs over a 56K modem. I am currently running sarge. I keep > my system up to date by running apt-get (usually dist-upgrade) on a > daily basis. > > Apart from a couple of overnight marathons to get first the base system > and then X installed, I usually see much less than 10MB of upgrades at > any one time. In other words, rarely does a dist-upgrade take even 30 > mins, unless something big (like OpenOffice) is upgraded. > > Unless you have a broken modem, or a noisy telephone line which results > in very low negotiated connection speeds, it's really not a very big > deal to keep a system up to date (or even do an install from scratch) > over a standard dial up connection. The key is to run daily upgrades. > > I suppose that keeping a sid installation up to date would be more time > consuming, though. Could be expensive though, I remember when I was using dialup, about 1-hour/day connection at off-peak rates only cost only about £5 /month less than I currently pay for ADSL 24 hours /day at 10 times the data rate. James -- James Tappin, O__ "I forget the punishment for using [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- \/` Microsoft --- Something lingering http://www.tappin.me.uk/ with data loss in it I fancy" -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
