Decide whether to have a software installation path other than through the Ubuntu repository

[axch]

Potential advantages:

• Hot-patching (how long does it take to do a full cycle of build packages, upload, apt-get upgrade?)
• Giving specific users software that we don't feel comfortable publishing broadly (or should we just lower our "broad" standards enough that this doesn't happen?)

Disadvantages:

• More process, more infrastructure, more bit-rotting code

[axch]

Note: I think only the decision goes in the "Finish" milestone. Implementing the decision may well be out of scope until a later project.

[riastradh-probcomp]

We can already apply updates with apt-get update && apt-get upgrade without rebuilding an AMI, recreating or restarting an instance, &c. If we want to install something custom on a single machine, we can already do . ~/venv/bin/activate && pip install --no-index . in a git checkout. What process do you want to be more streamlined?

If it's the combination of the two, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Doing a wide-scale deployment without the audit trail of a new Ubuntu package version sounds like asking for trouble.

[axch]

There is no process I want to be more streamlined, as such. The question was whether we want to use the Ubuntu repository for fast-turnaround updates, or (do not and do something else). Sounds like the answer to my question is "yes, use the Ubuntu repository for fast-turnaround updates;" if you agree, we can just close this ticket.