Why you shouldn't upgrade to Ubuntu Feisty

There seems to be a rush to upgrade to Ubuntu's latest release Feisty Fawn. One of the main reasons people give for upgrading is "it's much newer" (supposedly this makes it better?).

I know it's been out for a couple of months but let's take a little look at what you gain and what you lose.

I've already received a moan about this article so I'll emphasise a point - this article is regarding server use. Not desktop use. Server use.

Whether you are a hobbyist or a professional looking after multiple servers the top 3 qualities to look for in a server are security, stability and reliability.

I will outline several issues with upgrading from Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support) to Ubuntu 7.04.

Security

The top concern is, naturally, security.

Is Feisty insecure? Not that I'm aware of - at least, no more than any other release. Of course vulnerabilities will be found and they will be patched (usually pretty quickly) via the official repositories.

And there lies my first concern that seems to be overlooked. Exactly how long is Feisty (server edition) going to be supported?

Until 2008.

It may seem a long time until 2008, but it's not. One of my servers has an uptime of several months. Nothing to brag about but my point is that by the time my Feisty server reaches that uptime, I am getting to the end of any official security updates for it.

What do I do then? Install an entirely new, untested, untried Ubuntu version? This is a server we are talking about isn't it?

How long does the Ubuntu LTS version support security updates for?

Until 2011.

Seriously, what are you going to do in 2008? Install another Operating System?

Stability and reliability

These two go hand in hand and it's sometimes difficult to differentiate between the two.

I mentioned uptime a few moments ago. Again, nothing to brag about and it doesn't indicate a great deal except that my server is pretty reliable.

And there lies my second point of concern. Can anyone tell me how Feisty performs after 6 months of uptime?

No they can't. Feisty was released in April 2007 (hence the 7.04 version number) so the most anyone could tell me, outside of the Ubuntu development labs, is that it's fine after a few weeks.

My clients tell me they must have absolute stability and reliability in their servers. I earn money from my servers and their business relies on my uptime. What can you tell me about how Feisty will perform in another 3 months?

You can't tell me. You don't know.

This is a quote from a conversation I had: "Well, someone has to test it or how will they ever progress?"

I can only assume they have nothing mission critical on their servers because I can tell you that noble intentions get you nowhere when your website is down. Explain to your clients or users that the reason it was down is that you are a pioneer for the future.

Latest releases

Feisty has later software versions than LTS.

Yup. Can't fault you there. Absolutely correct.

I am sure you can't fail to have noticed the surge of Ruby on Rails (stay with me, this is going somewhere). Many Railers use Mongrels to serve their Rails apps. Apache did not have a load balancer available until version 2.2.

Feisty has version 2.2. LTS has version 2.0.

Two things here. Firstly, are you are actually going to install an entire Operating System for a pre-compiled binary which will take around 5 minutes to install from source?

The second concern comes in two parts really, the first of which is a reluctance to get involved with your server. Compiling Apache 2.2 takes literally 5 minutes and there are hundreds (google it) of reputable and reliable tutorials out there. Yet some would rather install an entire operating system than do that.

The last part is this: "I'd rather install Feisty with Apache 2.2 and have what I want than mess about with compiling it".

This person was talking about load balancers. It looks, on the surface, exactly the same as my first point and, indeed, it does have relevance to that. Take a second look though. This makes the massive assumption that the pre-compiled Apache version has what they want.

What if it doesn't? What if the next whiz-bang idea is in Apache 2.4? And Feisty doesn't support that? Do you wait until 2008 or 2009 until Ubuntu does support it and then install another Operating System?

New does not necessarily mean better

I am not anti Feisty. There are, in fact, some very good reasons to upgrade LTS to Feisty in a server environment.

Newer programme versions is one of them. Despite what I have just said there are a few scenarios, such as Java support, that do require an upgrade and in those situations I would encourage just that.

However, think long and hard before upgrading.

With the upsurge of cheap hardware, VPS's are very fashionable and many get involved in them without knowing a lot about it.

I encourage that. No one is born with server knowledge; they learn it. However, I would say take your time. Servers are not desktops. It really doesn't matter if my desktop goes a bit wonky while I play with the latest version of beryl or compiz-fusion.

It does matter if my server goes a bit wonky playing with the latest Ubuntu version.

Think before you upgrade and if you do, then please enjoy it :)

PickledOnion.

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