Re: problems with latest mega-upgrade | PM utility not found?

> Massive updates often require a lot of effort in testing and bug fixing to
> make
> sure everything works.

Having been involved in aspects of open source application development 
for (oh, say) 20+ years, I'm familiar with the issue...

>   If everyone waits until all the problems have been
> sorted out, there would be no progress, so kudos to everyone who has
> tried the new updates.

...which is why you have a group of dedicated beta-testers before 
releasing to the masses at large. For my own work, major apps are tested 
by anywhere from 10-50 people, and then dumped out to everyone once they 
pass the sniff test. Most major application are handled this way (I'm a 
beta-tester for a bunch of things -- web server software, various 
statistical packages). I'm on a dedicated download channel (or pull 
things from specific git repos), and go from there.

MikTeX is on a lot of desktops. I've often wondered if it might be worth 
having a beta test group that understands the risks of working on the 
bleeding edge, rather than using the segment of the installed user-base 
who flip the 'update' switch as a proxy for a beta test group. I 
*suspect* the challenge would be coming up with a beta distribution 
system that is somehow distinct from CTAN, but there are precedents.

I'm personally not too fussed. As per original email, I make sufficient 
backups so that if things burst into flames, I can roll back in <2 
minutes. But, not everyone does that. My general admonition is 'if it 
ain't broke, don't fix it, and if you ignore that and try anyway, be 
prepared...meaning, have a workable backup structure'. This used to be a 
pain with MikTeX, because for some reason, I was always installing for 
multi-user setups, and not a single-user. After finally taking to heart 
Ulrike's comments about the advantages of single-user installs (and 
since I actually had no technical reason to use multi-user), this is easy.




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