Is it always a good idea to do upgrades?

[tc101]

I got my starling netbook 6 months ago and it worked perfectly. Due to upgrades since then I now have problems with printing, sound and YouTube. There are probably solutions to all of these things if I spent hours here on the forum asking questions, and trying different solutions, but it seems like a lot of work. I just want a computer that works. I don't want to be constantly making adjustments.

Upgrade manager calls these things "Important Security Upgrades". Are they really important to security? Would my computer be dangerously vulnerable to attack if I never did an upgrade?

[ChipOManiac]

Kinda unansewarable.... Some updates will work for some and some may deteriorate the system of others... I'm still using LTS Lynx and am not sure whether upgrading to 10.10 will cause problems (I want KDE 4.6 )... So it all depends on whether you want to take a risk...

[jre6]

Security packages are important to security, but it should not be much of a problem if you do not upgrade. For example, I myself never make any upgrades, and rarely do version upgrades of Ubuntu.

[Roush 427r]

I did the upgrade as well, and got the red scale on youtube. I also got a recent update and it is apparently fixed.

[RedRat]

Depends if you like a challenge. Other than the LTS versions of Ubuntu, consider all of those intermediate upgrades as basically beta testing, getting the OS ready for prime time. Again, depends on what you like to, do you enjoy fighting those little battles with upgrades? If you do, upgrade away. However, if you want a stable system that allows you to do productive things, I would avoid them like the plague. Instead, upgrade to the next LTS version. Even here, I would advise you to wait a few months for the kinks to get ironed out.

NOTE: What I am talking about here are the upgrades from one version to the next, e.g., 8.04-->8.10, or 10.04-->10.10. I was not referring to the daily or weekly upgrades of the system parts that are sent via the Update Manager. Sorry, I didn't realize that my statement could be confused. Of course, use update manager updates, these correct security holes, etc. Sorry about that.

[adduds]

this is a very key post! i've been wondering the exact same question as i have 10.10 and constantly run the updates daily and am always fixing tweaking on the forums etc....trying to make my system stable....

would i not have to do this if i was running 10.04 lynx (LTS) and doing updates... sorry not meaning to hijack but great question!

[jdb]

this is a very key post! i've been wondering the exact same question as i have 10.10 and constantly run the updates daily and am always fixing tweaking on the forums etc....trying to make my system stable....

would i not have to do this if i was running 10.04 lynx (LTS) and doing updates... sorry not meaning to hijack but great question!

I'm running LTS on 5 computers, one is a System76 laptop, a DARU2.
I always say OK to the updates (not upgrades) & have never had a problem.
Your mileage may vary

When I do upgrade to a new LTS, I reformat & do it from a liveCD.
It's a good check on my data backups, LOL
My backup is pretty robust though.
I keep all my data synchronized on all my computers.
It's not really a big deal since I do them one at a time.

Ubuntu is my goto distro, but I play with others on other partitions.
Arch is a whole nother animal, I sometimes take a whole afternoon
getting things to work right after letting updates run in that

jdb

[jml]

To answer the OP's question, one of the reasons to run Linux is the fact that it is more secure from attack. More secure, but not invulnerable. I also install all security upgrades.

I also do what jdb does. For me security and stability of my system is more important than having the latest and greatest version of an app. Since LTS versions of Ubuntu tend to be built with stability in mind, they tend to have slightly less cutting edge versions of applications and tend to break less. In fact, I go one step further than Ubuntu LTS. For my main work laptop at home, I run Debian stable. Pretty much the only updates I get deal with security.

I also agree with jdb that when it is time to upgrade to a new LTS version, I back up my data and do a clean install from a live CD. I boot from the live CD first to ensure the new version runs without issues on my system. To utilize the built in upgrade feature within Ubuntu, you really need to upgrade sequentially through all versions and not simply skip from one LTS version to another. Not a big deal if you always take a version upgrade, but a real PIA for people like me who run LTS versions. Hope that this helps.

Joe

[pafufta503]

it is a good idea to wait to upgrade. when 11.04 comes out i am certainly not upgrading, as my system is stable and i am happy with it.
if you are excited about trying unity, or gnome 3, or whatever, then by all means upgrade. these are new, and therefore will be quite buggy or unstable when released, so waiting 2-3 months will give canonical and the gnome dev's time to fix the bugs.

i say this as i made the mistake of upgrading my desktop computer from 9.10 to 10.04 last year. the result was that ubuntu became unbootable and i had to switch back to OS X. it was such a headache, i spent so much time trying to troubleshoot why i couldn't boot ubuntu that i gave up after many months. the lesson i learned, wait to update/upgrade your OS, do some research on new versions of OS's to ensure compatibility and to anticipate potential issues you might have when upgrading. i would recommend reading the forum sections that pertain to upgrading, hardware, desktop environments, and look for anything relevant to your system and ubuntu 11.04.

also the most important bit, back up your important data. back it up twice if you must, just DO NOT upgrade without ensuring you have a backup of everything that's important to you.