n00b questions regarding upgrades

[MikeBrown]

I have Ubuntu 8.10 dual-booted on a laptop (check sig for details) and it's been working out great. I use my linux boot more often than the windows version because of the ease of the programs, customization, etc.

I have a few questions as this is the first time I forsee having to deal with these issues. I feel like if I ask them now (waaaaay before the next scheduled release) I can get answers and take the necessary steps to upgrade.

1) What should I expect to lose in an upgrade?
2) Is it easier to upgrade or do a fresh install?
3) How will this affect the Windows partition?
4) What should I back up (besides the obvious "your personal files")? Such as the /usr folder, etc so I can save settings/programs and the like
5) Any additional things I should know, since this would be the first time I've upgraded an Ubuntu install?

I know it's possible that I can lose all my theme, icon and other additional settings (not too big of a deal), but if I have all my personal data backed up I should be good to go right?

Any help would be much appreciated, as I would like be be as prepared as possible to go to 9.x

[SuperSonic4]

1. Not sure, probably config and some old versions

2. Fresh Install is always easier, you can even keep the same /home if it is on a different partition to /

3. Not in the slightest

4. /home on a separate partition - this will keep program settings

5. I've never upgraded so I don't know

[MikeBrown]

Yeah, I didn't put the /home in a different partition, it was all lumped into one. I'm probably going to end up just doing a fresh install over the same partition with my personal data and the /home partition backed up on a cd or dvd depending on the size. Then I'll just transfer everything over.

If anyone else has any suggestions or an alternative way to do this, I would love to hear them!

Thanks!

[donkyhotay]

I've upgraded every version from dapper and the most I had to do was reconfigure my network (I don't like the network manager) and reinstall my graphics drivers, (some of the earlier versions were harder but upgrades really improved with hardy). Now I will admit I have not upgraded straight through all those versions directly as I have reinstalled my system fresh again from time to time due to accidently breaking things (I enjoy tweaking my system). The upgrade issue is one of the main reasons I moved away from fedora as I got tired of reinstalling from scratch every time a new version came out. As always it's a good idea to back up your /home partition but for the most part it's pretty straight forward. If you're familiar with windows upgrading ubuntu versions is easier then upgrading windows from one version to another (i.e. win2k to winXP) and pretty similar to upgrading service packs (i.e. XPSP1 to XPSP3).

//edit: You should always back your /home folder on a (semi-)regular basis. Thats just smart computing regardless of what you're doing.

[MikeBrown]

Yeah when I installed 8.10, really the hardest part was making sure I wasn't installing over my Windows partition (which is how I broke a previous computer) and then having to hard-wire into our network until I downloaded the necessary video card and wireless networking drivers.

I must say that switching from Windows to Linux thru Ubuntu has been quite an easy transition, and anything I didn't figure out while playing around with settings could be found on this forum or anywhere else just by entering "ubuntu 8.10" into google with whatever I needed to find.

Muuuuuch more helpful than windows if you have a problem.

Plus I love the Synaptic Package Manager for finding new progz.

I'm starting to think that this will be a lot less painful than most of the things I did in Windows (like for instance, not having to pay $200+ for a new install :lolflag:)

Seriously, I'm only keeping my Vista boot around because I know I'm going to need to keep learning how to use that to play "Tech Support" to all of my Computer Illiterate friends...

Thanks for the help guys!