Is there any benefit/risk to keeping the rpi up to date? Not talking a full dist-upgrade but just applying updates. Obviously today requires ssh. Is this something that would be planned as part of the firmware updates?
What ‘up to date’ are you referring to?
Sorry… Talking the raspbian os components like python etc.
You’ll most likely break everything.
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Good to know. 
Thanks…
I feel like generally this is bad advise, especially with a device that can be internet connected. Running security updates is generally recommended, as most go through proper testing to not break distributions, etc. I get it, that yes, things can break, but a general “You’ll most likely break everything.” is just lazy, and undermining your users.
Ultimately, just make a copy of the SD card (image it), and play as you might, this ensures you have a backup to go to.
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while I found the response “You’ll most likely break everything.” humorous, one might have more mature customer support from Shandong province where for a similar price you get a lot more machine including a 4th axis.
While I believe if OF chose a different 5 word response it may have come across differently, I think there is a danger, from a business and customer support perspective, in encouraging modifications to the RPI. I think sometimes OF choose providing a prompt answer over one that is perhaps thorough and worded appropriately or effectively. I believe most owners that are asking these questions have a pretty good idea of why they are asking, and probably know the benefits of their intended RPI actions, but also have a good idea of how to solve any ‘breakage’ they cause. I imagine it is a small percentage of OF owners that have these IT skills. It could be quite a drain on resources if the OF support team had to troubleshoot user changes made to the RPI.
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I am perfectly OK with their response. There is a lot of difference in behaviors of different versions and on somethings it is safer for them to package the changes and test things. Being a fork of a codebase adds complexity as well. I purchased from them for their expertise instead of building my own from scratch. I may tinker but will do so knowing the risks and take a backup first.
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It’s all about, “Perception”…
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