I realize this is a cross post, but I’m curious how everyone feels about upgrades versus fresh installs…
As the release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS rapidly approaches, the all important question is beginning to form in everyone’s mind. Upgrade, or freshly install.
Fresh install. The problem with upgrades, in my experience, is that they are more likely to have problems than fresh installs. At least operating system upgrades. And I say this with primarily Windows experience, but with Mac and Linux experience as well. With Macs I clone the drive, do an Erase and Install, then use the Migrate Users function.
I get a new laptop from work every 2 years. 2 years ago I did a fresh install of Edgy, and then one year ago did an upgrade to Feisty, and it went great.
I get a new laptop this summer, and I’ll do an upgrade and see how it goes. If it bails I don’t care, because I get a new laptop.
The test is good though, because my desktop is also upgraded from edgy to feisty. I didn’t go with Gutsy because I didn’t need anything in it. I’m concerned about the upgrade because it skips a version, and I can’t really afford to lose everything on my desktop.
I’ve had problems with upgrading Kubuntu before–system hangs in Adept that have made the whole system unstable (or in one instance, unbootable). That said, I’ll probably try an update over a fresh install just because it’s such a pain in the ass to get everything Just The Way I Like It™.
Hence, I’m looking at HH with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. Maybe I’ll even put off an upgrade–my laptop works pretty well as is, and while the geek in me wants the Latest And Greatest, there’s also the part of me that doesn’t want to have my main computer go ploink while I try to reassemble things.
Im still very noobish so I usually do a fresh install. Unless I actually manage to get every driver working on a linux box. Then I treat it like gold and do upgrades. The alsa sound driver is the bane of my existence.
I just recently upgraded from a a less than clean* install of Kubuntu Dapper to Gutsy. I had to make do with the cli, as the GUI tools kept failing. I got upgraded without too much trouble, but it took a couple of days to get through all those versions. Everything seems stable after my upgrade, though I did immediately kill strigi & made Konqueror my default file manager (vs Dolphin).
* I’ve installed packages from a variety of third party repos (including newer versions of KDE, audio/video codecs, etc…).