LinuxQuestions.org - Which of these packages would you upgrade?

- Slackware (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/)

- - Which of these packages would you upgrade? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/which-of-these-packages-would-you-upgrade-303154/)

Which of these packages would you upgrade?

I used slapt-get to simulate an upgrade.. these are the packages it wanted to upgrade. Everything is working good on my system.. is there a real need to upgrade or stay current? like security wise or anything like that?? and in this list is there anything that I really 'should' upgrade??

Code:

root@slackware:/home/x# slapt-get -s -upgrade

Reading Package Lists... Done

The following packages will be upgraded:

  x11-devel x11 openssh x11-docs x11-fonts-misc nmap udev gaim espgs flex glib2 

  samba gtk+2 gcc-g++ gcc x11-fonts-scale 

16 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Need to get 86MB of archives.

After unpacking 12MB of additional disk space will be used.

x11-devel-6.8.1-i486-3 is to be upgraded to version 6.8.2-i486-1

x11-6.8.1-i486-3 is to be upgraded to version 6.8.2-i486-1

openssh-3.9p1-i486-1 is to be upgraded to version 4.0p1-i486-1

x11-docs-6.8.1-noarch-2 is to be upgraded to version 6.8.2-noarch-1

x11-fonts-misc-6.8.1-noarch-2 is to be upgraded to version 6.8.2-noarch-1

nmap-3.75-i486-1 is to be upgraded to version 3.81-i486-1

udev-050-i486-1 is to be upgraded to version 054-i486-3

gaim-1.1.2-i486-1 is to be upgraded to version 1.1.4-i486-1

espgs-7.07.1-i486-2 is to be upgraded to version 8.15rc2-i486-1

flex-2.5.4a-i486-2 is to be upgraded to version 2.5.4a-i486-3

glib2-2.6.1-i486-1 is to be upgraded to version 2.6.3-i486-1

samba-3.0.10-i486-1 is to be upgraded to version 3.0.11-i486-1

gtk+2-2.6.1-i486-2 is to be upgraded to version 2.6.3-i486-1

gcc-g++-3.3.4-i486-1 is to be upgraded to version 3.3.5-i486-1

gcc-3.3.4-i486-1 is to be upgraded to version 3.3.5-i486-1

x11-fonts-scale-6.8.1-noarch-2 is to be upgraded to version 6.8.2-noarch-1

Done

root@slackware:/home/x#

I would upgrade all of them just because.. I can! :D

Seriously though, it depends on what software you actually use. If you never compile anything there's not much use in upgrading gcc for example. And if you don't use X, well, you get the idea. :) It's wise to read the changelog on the Slackware website, it will tell you if an upgrade fixes a security issue or broken Slackware package, or is just meant to include whatever new functionality the developers added. Be advised though, that usually developers will include bug- and security fixes in their releases so even when the Slack changelog doesn't explicitly specify that an update is a security fix, it might still be worth while.

Short story: do some research on what it is you're upgrading and what is different about the new version, that should be the base for your decisions, rather than the list of things slapt-get feels it should upgrade. :)

"Everything is working good on my system" -what more do you want?
I would upgrade NONE of them.
My best advice for USERS is to only upgrade packages that make it into the /patches directory -these are the critical security updates.
Settle back, use and enjoy for a couple of years. When you buy new hardware that won't work, or start using that bleeding edge program and your system won't work well with them, then do a nice fresh install of the latest version.

lol.. I was thinking that if it wasn't broken don't fix it.. however, I gave in to temptation.. and installed all of them and updated the config files.. took like 20 min.. too easy.. I will probably keep doing it until I get burned :P