Hacker News Reader

Comment by cjauvin | Hacker News Reader

For a category of software as "boring" as an OS is, I really agree that "just working" is the ultimate, almost sacred quality. I simply can't stand anymore the incessant ritual of software updates, and even the rhythm of something cutting edge like VS Code, on my Ubuntu LTS, is slightly too frequent for my taste.

View on HN

That’s all well and good, but you need security updates too.

No you don't, or at least I don't. I need secure software. Frequent security upgrades are a good indicator that vendor didn't do a good job at the start. Once in a while, ok, and debian supports a special channel for security upgrades for this very purpose.

I do agree that with perfect software, written by perfect developers, updates aren't needed. I mean, has anyone ever had to "update" the Mona Lisa? I hold my web browser to the same standard.

People have certainly tried.

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/mona-lisa-smeared-cake...

I don't get the contradiction. Are you implying that security update don't 'just work' or that Debian doesn't push security update?

The kind of 'just works' that most refer to is that they turn their computer on and start working, rather than turning their computer on, being forced to login to a net account, being forced into a tutorial dialogue for a newly added feature, and then realizing that BigCo deprecated your file format support last forced update because they replaced it with TheNewWay.

I'm responding to this:

> I simply can't stand anymore the incessant ritual of software updates

Yes, and Debian provides those, backporting where necessary.

I recently subscribed to debians security updates newsletter and I get about 2-3 emails per week about new exploits and security releases.

Not sure your comment applies here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com