23
Rolling Release Distros Superior To LTS Distros In The Patch-Heavy GenAI Era? (www.phoronix.com)
submitted 1 week ago* by to c/linux@programming.dev
5 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

this should be a controversial post lol

all 5 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 5 points 5 days ago

I've always been conflicted on LTS. As a Linux hobbyist, I've used bleeding-edge software for years and had very few breaks and issues, but as someone who also maintains their own instance, the added level of reassurance is nice. Do I think my stuff will break? No, thats why I use Arch/Artix on my laptop. Am I still anxious about it? Yes, that's why I use Debian for my servers

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 1 point 1 week ago (3 children)

    Using LLMs to backport approved paches in upstream software into older versions should be significantly easier and more accurate than producing the original patch and reviewing it. In the backport scenario the knowledge that the patch is "good" is already settled. The source around it is in place so the LLM has very tightly bounded context to work with, left with very little freedom to make mistakes. I think LLMs will make LTS releases significantly easier to maintain.

    Debian btw.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 17 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

    Greg KH in a recent talk said even the most advanced LLM produces an incorrect result 50% of the time, I would not trust it to perform more reliably than a human even with tight boundaries.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 3 points 6 days ago

    They will do better if you give them a patch to re-apply, so it's not going to be as bad. But the review effort is probably going to eat up the time saved applying the patch, since you can't throw a coin on the LLM having done any kind of due diligence on side-effects.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 week ago*

    I wonder which way would give a better success rate.

    1. Write the patch for the latest LTS version and let the LLM forwardport it to master. (But don't roll out the LTS update until after the rolling distros get the patch?)
    2. Or write the patch for master and let the LLM backport it to LTS.

    Especially if you're having the LLM port to every active LTS version, maybe option 1 would work since it's more like a midpoint? Kind of a more neutral zone, fewer commits to conflict in any direction. And that could theoretically prioritize the most recent LTS version as being the most reliable, which is probably what most critical deployments actually need.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent