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Comment by PythonicAlpha | Hacker News Reader

I must acknowledge, that I don't have so much administration knowledge as you have. I come more from the development corner. And I really "hate" that stuff. I also have to say, that what you write is probable right. But I think, there are some people like me, that have one or two servers for some projects running (and I know even people, that have websites or even servers running with even less knowledge) who just want that the stuff works and don't have time or ambition to optimize things.

Do you know, if this rollback stuff is also available for Debian based systems? Sounds pretty good. I regret, I don't know yum, it is for RPM-based systems, I know, but the last systems I used where all Ubuntu and Debian.

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I haven't done a lot with Debian based systems -- I've traditionally been a Slackware / DIY / Redhat person. I just looked through the documentation and a bit of the source code for apt-get, and nothing popped out at me for a rollback feature. If I come across anything I'll update this comment for you.

But I know what you mean about hating the sysadmin side of things. Of course there are people that really love it too -- there's sort of a mindset that you have to get into, just like with development. Maybe this could be an idea for a new service -- matching up programmers with side projects, with sysadmins that are looking for side projects to help manage.

Yea, that would be really a great idea. I have a friend, whom I ask for help some time, but he also has only limited time.

And I lack the time to really dive into automation stuff and that sort. So many interesting tools are available, but you always have to take time and learn it first.

> matching up programmers with side projects, with sysadmins that are looking for side projects to help manage.

That sounds like a fantastic idea. Even in my case, I do "OK" as a sysadmin most of the time, but would love some occasional guidance or assistance.

> Do you know, if this rollback stuff is also available for Debian based systems?

Over half the servers I admin are running some flavor of Debian, and have for at least five years or so. To the best of my knowledge there's no rollback method for Debian updates, short of relying on filesystem tricks like using ZFS, discussed upthread.

Thank you for your information! That would be really a fine feature. I love Debian for its stability (as it is said ... I just lack time, to compare myself) but the administration tools are still a black box for me and I have the feeling, that they could need a brush-up.

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