Jason32
November 4th, 2009, 11:09 PM
I have a newb-type question which I'm sure has been asked before a few times, but I'm looking for some opinions.
Right now I'm running Hardy, the LTS version of ubuntu. I install updates when they're available, but I've never really thought seriously about upgrading to one of the newer releases. My plan was to wait for the next LTS release and do a clean install.
I'm wondering if this thinking is valid, or if it's just a hangover from my days as a windows user when an upgrade usually involved new hardware, and also represented a good opportunity to update the version of certain key pieces of software like Microsoft Office, not to mention cleaning out the clutter left by my day to day use of the computer. In some senses you could say that I never really upgraded windows as such, I just did a clean install whenever I was ready for a new version. My idea was to do the same thing with ubuntu, following the LTS release cycle.
Here's the thing though: installing from scratch represents quite a bit of work for me. I have things like conky and cairo dock installed and configured just the way I want them, I can wirelessly sync my iPod touch, I have a couple of WebDAV drives mapped at boot as if they were physical drives attached to the computer, and I have remote login sessions enabled over VNC. All of these things (plus probably some more which don't come to mind right now) I use on a daily basis and setting them up took some trail and error, and in some cases some considerable time to perfect. I'm not ready to have to do all that again.
So here are my questions. Given that everything right now works the way I want it to, and I'm installing whatever updates come my way, is it actually worth me upgrading to the latest distro? Why?
If the answer to that is yes, then given that I'd be upgrading this time around rather than doing a fresh install, are there any issues surrounding that path that I need to be aware of? On a practical level, is there a difference between doing an upgrade vs doing a fresh install?
Thank in advance for your help!
Right now I'm running Hardy, the LTS version of ubuntu. I install updates when they're available, but I've never really thought seriously about upgrading to one of the newer releases. My plan was to wait for the next LTS release and do a clean install.
I'm wondering if this thinking is valid, or if it's just a hangover from my days as a windows user when an upgrade usually involved new hardware, and also represented a good opportunity to update the version of certain key pieces of software like Microsoft Office, not to mention cleaning out the clutter left by my day to day use of the computer. In some senses you could say that I never really upgraded windows as such, I just did a clean install whenever I was ready for a new version. My idea was to do the same thing with ubuntu, following the LTS release cycle.
Here's the thing though: installing from scratch represents quite a bit of work for me. I have things like conky and cairo dock installed and configured just the way I want them, I can wirelessly sync my iPod touch, I have a couple of WebDAV drives mapped at boot as if they were physical drives attached to the computer, and I have remote login sessions enabled over VNC. All of these things (plus probably some more which don't come to mind right now) I use on a daily basis and setting them up took some trail and error, and in some cases some considerable time to perfect. I'm not ready to have to do all that again.
So here are my questions. Given that everything right now works the way I want it to, and I'm installing whatever updates come my way, is it actually worth me upgrading to the latest distro? Why?
If the answer to that is yes, then given that I'd be upgrading this time around rather than doing a fresh install, are there any issues surrounding that path that I need to be aware of? On a practical level, is there a difference between doing an upgrade vs doing a fresh install?
Thank in advance for your help!