RPi Raspbian – are they serious?

I have used RPi over a number of years, always with the ‘official’ Raspbian distribution.

I have a single RPi 3B+ and several 2B models, I stopped buying RPi due to the RPi3B+ voltage issue. Yes, I purchased the official power supply (at uncompetitive price), and it failed in less than a year.

Came time to upgrade the 3B+ software, as much for security assurance as anything, and a quick desk study turned up this advice on https://www.raspberrypi.com/ , the Raspberry Pi Foundation website.

Upgrading from Previous Operating System Versions

WARNING

Upgrading an existing image is sometimes possible, but is not guaranteed to work in every circumstance and we do not recommend it. If you do wish to try upgrading your operating system version, we strongly suggest making a backup first. We accept no responsibility for the loss of any data during a failed update.

Are they serious…

Well, they are, and the upgrade resulted in an unbootable image. Yes, I had a backup, but what was I to do with that, restore the backup and abandon the upgrade?

Backwards compatibility is a millstone around the neck of most software developers… well most but not Raspbian developers it seems.

I have used Linux in several distributions since about 1992, and I have yet to use another distribution that warned against version upgrades. Raspbian look like kids in the kitchen!

Last update: 19th November, 2023, 7:42 AM