Re: [orca-list] openSUSE, Tumbleweed, GNOME, and Orca

[Jason White <jason jasonjgw net>]

Robert Cole <rkcole72984 gmail com> wrote:
> I guess if I could generalize my question even
> further, I would phrase it like this: If one wants to keep up with
> accessibility improvements (e.g. Orca and the GNOME Shell Magnifier
> in my case), but one wants to avoid the six-month upgrade rutine, is
> a rollign release distribution a safe, efficient, and effective way
> to go?

That depends very much on how prepared you are to fix problems as they arise
on a system which is updated continuously rather than dealing with them all at
once in a single, regular upgrade procedure.

If you want high reliability/stability, you need to choose Debian stable or
one of the so-called "enterprise" distributions. This won't give you regular
updates and it won't meet your goal of tracking the latest GNOME and
accessibility-related changes.

The "six-month" upgrade cycles are in between.

Then there are the continuously upgraded distributions, in which you need to
be prepared to deal with problems that may occur as components of the system
are upgraded.

What I'm suggesting, in effect, is that your two goals (high reliability and
absence of breakage, and regular updates to the latest GNOME and accessibility
tools) are incompatible. Either you get continuous upgrades with a constant
risk that something will break, or you compromise with a six-month release
cycle, or you opt for greater stability with an "enterprise" distribution.

There are people who run continuously upgraded systems comfortably and who are
well placed to fix occasional problems that occur; but you really do have to
be prepared to deal with those, including the possibility of a system that
won't boot until you enter a rescue environment and fix it. If you're worried
about having only one machine and not being in a position to fix problems,
then I don't think you should be looking at the continuously upgraded
distributions that you've discussed here. If you're prepared to fix the
problems, though, and you're aware that (distributors being subject to human
failings) they will happen at various points along the way, then go ahead and
choose a "rolling" distribution.

The perfect world in which we can all upgrade continuously to the latest
software without experiencing problems (of varying degrees of severity) along
the way simply doesn't exist.