Knowing When to Say No

You see a new piece of software posted on freshmeat, and you just know that it will solve that nagging problem you've been having with (insert name here). But what many of us don't realize, until it's far too late, is all the possible ramifications of installing (or deleting) even one simple piece of software. Allan Cantos, CTO at Acrylis (www.acrylis.com) will explore many real-world scenarios and pose questions that every Linux Administrator should ask prior to hitting the download button. Things like how much work is involved if I install that new software? What, if anything, will break in the process? Do I need to update any existing libraries on my system? What other key applications rely on those libraries? In the end, is it worth my time to do an upgrade?