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From: mwoehlke <mwoehlke AT tibco DOT com>
Subject:  Re: snapshots: first resort, or last resort?
Date:  Tue, 20 Jun 2006 19:18:18 -0500
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Science Guy wrote:
> In http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2006-06/msg00434.html, Brian said "using the
> latest snapshot should always be the first thing you try when encountering a
> problem before reporting it to the list."
> 
> However, the instructions for installing snapshots at
> http://cygwin.com/faq/faq-nochunks.html#faq.setup.snapshots say:  "First,
> are you sure you want to do this? Snapshots are risky. They have not been
> tested. Use them ONLY if there is a feature or bugfix that you need to try,
> and you are willing to deal with any problems, or at the request of a Cygwin
> developer."
> 
> For a non-expert, such as me, this dichotomy of views is perplexing.  This
> is made all the more perplexing because there does not seem to be (I could
> not find) a user-readable list of bugs that each snapshot fixes vis-a-vis
> the latest release.  So how would a user know whether the "risky" step of
> installing a snapshot will have any chance of fixing a particular bug?
> 
> -- Joe

You asked, "Should I be eager to try snapshots or nervous?", to which my 
answer is "yes". :-)

If you have a problem, you should try a snapshot. However, you should 
keep in mind that doing so means trying a potentially unstable setup. 
Therefore, when trying a snapshot, you should do as little as possible 
while using that snapshot. If it doesn't fix your problem, it is safest 
to go back to a stable version. If it does, *then* you have to decide if 
you want to use a setup that might be unstable (more so than usual), or 
if you can wait for an official release.

Of course, OSS is always in need of people willing to live on the edge; 
otherwise no testing (or at best, poor testing) happens and the releases 
aren't a whole lot better than the alphas.

-- 
Matthew
The hippo made me do it! What? What do you mean you can't see the hippo?


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