36 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
36 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
|
---
|
|||
|
|
layout: post
|
|||
|
|
title: "Upgrades requiring a reboot on Linux? At last!"
|
|||
|
|
date: 2012-06-22 20:04:51+00:00
|
|||
|
|
tags: [linux]
|
|||
|
|
permalink: /blog/2012/6/22/upgrades-requiring-a-reboot-on-linux-at-last
|
|||
|
|
published: true
|
|||
|
|
author:
|
|||
|
|
name: Gergely Polonkai
|
|||
|
|
email: gergely@polonkai.eu
|
|||
|
|
---
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I’ve recently received an article on Google+ about Fedora’s new idea: package
|
|||
|
|
upgrades that require a reboot. The article said that Linux guys have lost
|
|||
|
|
their primary adoo: “Haha! I don’t have to reboot my system to install system
|
|||
|
|
upgrades!” My answer was always this: “Well, actually you should…”
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I think this can be a great idea if distros implement it well. PackageKit was
|
|||
|
|
a good first step on this road. That software could easily solve such an
|
|||
|
|
issue. However, it is sooo easy to do it wrong. The kernel, of course, can not
|
|||
|
|
be upgraded online (or could it be? I have some theories on this subject,
|
|||
|
|
wonder if it can be implemented…), but other packages are much different.
|
|||
|
|
From the users’ point of view the best would be if the packages would be
|
|||
|
|
upgraded in the background seemlessly. E.g. PackageKit should check if the
|
|||
|
|
given executable is running. If not, it should upgrade it, while notifying the
|
|||
|
|
user like “Hey dude, don’t start Anjuta now, I’m upgrading it!”, or simply
|
|||
|
|
denying to start it. Libraries are a bit different, as PackageKit should check
|
|||
|
|
if any running executables are using the library. Meanwhile, PK should also
|
|||
|
|
keep a notification somewhere telling the users that some packages could be
|
|||
|
|
upgraded, but without stopping this-and-that, it can not be done.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I know these things are easier said than done. But I think (a) users should
|
|||
|
|
tell such ideas to the developers and (b) developers (mostly large companies,
|
|||
|
|
like Microsoft or Apple) should listen to them, and at least think of these
|
|||
|
|
ideas. Some users are not as stupid as they think…
|