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Ubuntu updates realiable?

  • 06-12-2009 7:13am
    #1
    mehmeh12
    Closed Accounts Posts: 921 ✭✭✭


    Hi

    Am i correct to say that it is not Canonical per se but rather the community at large that provides system updates? How safe is this-are these people even paid to do this?


Comments

  • #2
    Naikon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭Naikon


    mehmeh12 wrote: »
    Hi

    Am i correct to say that it is not Canonical per se but rather the community at large that provides system updates? How safe is this-are these people even paid to do this?

    I would not call Ubuntu a super stable platform. Simply because it's
    a bleeding edge system. Good for a desktop, not so good for a server.

    The updates come from the main jaunty repo's though, so as long as
    you don't put malicious repo's in /etc/apt/sources.list, there is no reason
    to worry about security updates:)


  • #3
    Snowbat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,065 ✭✭✭Snowbat


    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu
    Main and Restricted are official.
    Universe and Multiverse are community-maintained.

    Many distros operate like this. Generally speaking, the packager of a community-maintained package is either the author of the software, or someone well-known in the dev community of that distro. They don't hand out accounts to just anyone.


  • #4
    Blowfish
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,112 ✭✭✭Blowfish


    mehmeh12 wrote: »
    Hi

    Am i correct to say that it is not Canonical per se but rather the community at large that provides system updates? How safe is this-are these people even paid to do this?
    Considering that pretty much the whole of the OS is written by the unpaid community, having that same community look after the updates too isn't really a bad thing.


  • #5
    Orion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,807 ✭✭✭✭Orion


    Naikon wrote: »
    Sit's a bleeding edge system. Good for a desktop, not so good for a server.

    You kidding? They only use software in the repos that they consider stable - and that consideration can be a good bit behind everyone else. It took them at least 2 releases before they included OpenOffice 3 as available software. It's my biggest problem with Ubuntu that they don't go more bleeding edge. I've completely uninstalled the version of OO that comes with Ubuntu and installed the actual latest version.

    That said - the releases are not Canonicals. They are general release. Canonical vet them for compatibility with their distrubution and push them via updates. So they are reliable. The question you are asking is are these people qualified to release the updates. The answer is that if they weren't they would be superceded by reliable ones. Consider Microsoft. One company either releases or doesn't release updates - they've been known to not release patches to existing exploits. In Linux any exploits are spotted and patched. Ultimately these patches are 'pushed' to distributions such as Ubuntu but there's nothing to stop you grabbing the source and patching it manually too. I'd trust the OS community more than a commercial company such as MS.


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