The Cafes

Some thoughts on upgrading open source server software

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours avoiding real work by upgrading my software. Specifically I upgraded MySQL 4.1, Apache 2, and PHP here on cafe.elharo.com after noticing that MySQL had crashed. I didn’t do any major version upgrades, just moved everything up to the latest point release of the branch I was using. Along the way I noticed big, gaping holes in the documentation for all three. Not one of them had any upgrade instructions. They all had poorly written instructions for a first time install (Apache was probably the least bad here, PHP the worst) and a couple had instructions for moving between versions (e.g. 1.3 to 2.0 or 4.1 to 5.0) but not one had anything to say about how you should upgrade from 4.1.1 to 4.1.2 while keeping your data, configuration, and extension modules intact. Since point releases often fix security holes, these are the most critical upgrades. I had to go to IRC to figure out how to upgrade MySQL, where I was told it would happen by “magic,” which would be nice if it were true, except it wasn’t.

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I’m getting really tired of paying for software that doesn’t work and isn’t supported. It’s one thing when a free-beer tool like Thunderbird or Eclipse or doesn’t work quite right. It’s quite another when I’ve given some company my hard-earned cash, and they can’t bothered to fix bugs, answer my e-mail, or support the latest version of an operating system. Well, in the immortal words of Howard Beale, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

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After I complained about about build failures in Ant 1.6 on Cafe au Lait, a couple of Ant developers wrote to me with various suggestions and FAQ references. They were nothing I hadn’t tried before though, and didn’t explain why I could make the build work with Ant 1.5 and not Ant 1.6. However what really annoyed me about this whole situation was not the bug. It was the lazy error message.
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After five plus years of staying way too often at this particular complex, I decided to put down some notes for fellow travelers who find themselves booked into this boring behemoth or nearby locations, situated in the middle of gorgeous suburban Santa Clara, home of office parks and strip malls. Believe it or not, there is culture here, but you need to know where to look to find it.

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Java’s slogan is “Write once, run anywhere”; but perhaps it should be, “Write once, run anywhere except Turkey.” Java is a wonderful programming language that’s loved and adored around the world, but not in Turkey, a nation of more than 60 million people. Nor is Java all that popular with the millions of Turkish speakers outside of Turkey. Sun didn’t use the Turkish flag to diaper the tiger cub at JavaOne 2004, but for all the adoption Java’s seen in Turkey, they might as well have. It’s not just the Java language that’s unpopular, either. Most programs written in Java that run just fine in the United States exhibit intolerable bugs in Turkey.

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