[chbot] Updating a program: which Way did I use to install it?

[Stephen Irons]

Clearly I have become an Average Joe User, installing stuff left, right 
and centre.

How did I get here?

I used to be quite disciplined, and only installed stuff from the 
official repos.

Then I needed a newer version with a new feature or bug-fix, and I had 
to use a PPA. And the feeling of trust and confidence went down a bit.

But sometimes the PPA version did not have the right option, so I had 
to install from source or version control. I imagine that I trusted 
those places too.

Well, two ways (distribution way and source) is managable.

Other people thought that universal installs were the bees-knees, but, 
of course, NIH-syndrome meant that we needed umpteen versions of the 
same thing. Suddenly, there are 3, 4, 5, who knows how many ways to 
install stuff, and my brain explodes.

(Also, in my list, I forgot about perl -- they too have a way to 
distribute stuff).

(Forgot about Wine too: some programs are Windows only, but run 
passably under Wine).

And look where I am now, and I didn't realise how far I had sunk.

In my defence

I do at least think about what I am installing and assess what the 
risks are.

I feel fairly confident with programs that install as a normal user 
(AppImage, Python pip, some source packages, downloaded tar files, 
Windows under Wine). Of course, there is no knowing what they will end 
up doing, but I think they will only affect My Stuff, not The Whole 
Caboodle.

Sometimes, though, it is cheapest in the short term to take the path of 
least resistance, download and trust to luck. So far, I think I have 
been lucky. Then again, how would I tell?

Perhaps it IS time to do a re-install.

Perhaps it is time to use a separate laptop for work, where we go down 
some unpalatable paths suggested by commercial reality or economic 
pressures.

Stephen Irons


On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 12:41, Volker Kuhlmann <list57 at top.geek.nz> 
wrote:
> [...]
> 
> Oh dear, sounds just like a Microsoft system... *ducks*
> 
> Looks like a lack of discipline with system administration.
> Maybe you want to start with fdisk and a freshly downloaded copy of
> $FAVDISTRO? That's what I'd do.
> 
> Volker
> 
> --
> Volker Kuhlmann
> <http://volker.top.geek.nz/>	Please do not CC list postings to me.
> 
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