From: Adam 

Geo wrote:
> "Adam" <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the
field.near the bridge"> wrote in
> message news:44b4919f$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>
>> mmmkay. updating your system from online repositories has been fairly
>> std for some time now in the world of linux.
>
> Yes, I know, it's almost as easy as WU and a whole lot safer. What caught my
> eye in this thread was the volume of updates, someone had mentioned 700mb in
> 3 months.
>

I doubt they're security updates.....in terms of OSS apps in general it's
the "release early & often" which means that the apps
themselves are often updated fairly rapidly. Nothing to do with security,
everything to do with functionality etc.

Having said that...it all depends on what you've installed. E.g. I have a
box which is basically apache, mysql, ssh, & assorted networking stuff
(spamassassin etc) & every now & again I have a security update for
it.


>> Yup you hook up to a "security updates" repo. Usually a
distro has this
>> as a specific repo or their "update" is just security fixes.
>
> How are these repositories for speed?
>

Depends on the host machine. There are usually sh*tloads of mirrors e.g. try going to

http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/

& have a look. I have an oddly fast connection to sweden & not so oddly
to the Netherlands (I'm on Demon/Thus as my ISP) & thus I tend to
choose repos there.


> How often (number of times in 3 months) does an update require a reboot?
>

So far....none...but then I've not upgraded the kernel.


> Are all the pieces (OS, Browser, apache, etc) updated from the same
> repository or do you have to go to different places to get the different
> pieces updated?

Nope but you can set up lots of repos & then the manager gives you
series of views (e.g. by repo, by package name etc).

I.e. you just just type in "firefox" & get the latest from
which ever repo has the latest version.

> Limited to what's on the CD, I would assume separate
> downloaded apps require you to go back to the author's site.
>

I assume so but I rarely if ever d/l from an authors site except wrt Java
software & 1/2 of that is webstart stuff if on the desktop or is now
done with the "update manager" in eclipse if eclipse.


Adam

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