[ydl-gen] Upgrade rant, was: Re: over-the-wire upgrading of 4.01 to 4.1

[Kai Staats]

All,

> Really? Mandrake (which I run on my PCs) allows you to upgrade the OS to
> a newer version, and save all your preferences. It will try to upgrade
> your applicaitons too, although in some cases this isn't always
> possible. I'm only aware of this feature from seeing it in the
> installer, I've never actually used it.

You _can_ in fact upgrade from one version of Linux to another, even with YDL. 
But when the kernel changes so far that the binaries are no longer 
compatible, then you must also upgrade binaries, libraries, as well. I know 
Linux users who have not rebooted their machine for more than 6 years, 
upgrading, upgrading, upgrading. But sometimes, it is just easier to backup 
the home dir, rebuild, and reinstall.

Ever tried backing up your home dir on OSX, rebuilding, and reinstalling? I 
have yet to have it work properly. Permissions are messed up, app preferences 
are all over the place and usually lost --it's a pain.

So, we simply recommend a reinstall because YDL v4.0 to 4.1 was in fact a 
major kernel upgrade (which was not intended when we started down the v4.1 
path).

kai