Fedora 8 will stop getting updates a month after F10 release

fedora 10 is released later this month, you have just one further month using yum to install software from the repositories for Fedora 8 (good forward planning from Acer there, not)

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_from_pre-release_to_final

 

Fedora8 won't be completely taken offline just quite yet, it'll just stop receiving updates. While that's still a pity, there's no need for a mad scramble to get things installed as far as I can see.

 

To emphasise what pienjo said:
- The remote servers will not go away, the existing packages will still be available, you will be able to use yum to install and upgrade for a long time to come. But....
- Fedora will not be adding any new features, expanding their hardware support, nor fixing security issues!; but this is a Open Source project and others (eg. Asus, Linpus, Joe Random Linux Hacker) will still be able to do this.
- Better link: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LifeCycle

Asus will still be able to provide security updates for the default Linpus install via their own repositories and update mechanism. Remember that Linpus is based on Fedora, but it is a separate distribution in it's own right.

Now.. Considering how well Fedora10 runs on the aspire (I'm going to give it a wizz next week) there is, I suppose, some small hope that ASUS might release a Fedora10 based AspireOne upgrade. It would certainly be a good way of keeping existing customers very happy. And failing that Fedora has their own project for netbooks, UMPC's etc, they even have a (out of date regarding Fedora10) Aspire One Page.

 

You're forgetting that the pool of available repo mirrors for F8 will rapidly dwindle as they will no longer be maintained. Just as happened with FC6 and F7

 

True, but the real concern is how long the Linpus and Asus repo mirrors are maintained, will Asus and Linpus still be providing security fixes in two years?
- That's what will affect those who use the default linpus on their machines, eg. my mum.
- Nobody who has done a full OS replacement will be affected, unless they chose F8 of course, in which case it's caveat emptor.
- The rest of us will either be willing to let the system stagnate or have moved on to newer OS's or umpc's before the F8 mirror list reaches crisis levels of unreachability.
- That said; it is certain that a few people will get caught out or be forced into replacing the OS when they did not really want to, but there is no need to panic or scaremonger about the scale or impact of this.

 

Unless Acer arrange an upgrade through the Live Update system. Practically, they might for example arrange for Live Update to provide an 'Upgrade whole System' option at some point, with suitable warnings that doing so will take rather a lot longer than a usual Live Update: click on the button and you then get a dist-upgrade (or whatever yum's equivalent is)run.

 

The main irritation will be for people who want to do something like 'yum install vlc' but find the F8 livna repo and standard repo mirrors are no longer online.
You won't be able reset your linpus system from the restore disk anymore and expect to get these apps using yum.

I agree that there is no need for a panic, but users should be aware that in a few months your linpus os will not be updateable from the usual fedora repos, you'll need to hunt down rpms etc.