10.04: upgrade or clean install

[ants280]

So: like the title says, should I do an upgrade or a clean install of 10.04? The last clean install I did was for 9.10. Doing won't be too hard for me, but it will still take 3-4 hours to get all the applications I use Installed and running. I would prefer not to do this. My system config shouldn't be an issue, as my Ubuntu has it's own partition on a 7200 rpm sata drive. My audio drive might be slightly messed up (or possibly wrong), but I can still listen to mp3s clear and loud, so it's fine for the most part.
I will at least try out 10.04 clean on a VM before upgrading/rewriting my current partition.

That should be enough information. I do pretty much all of my programming on Ubuntu, in many languages, if that makes any difference. I also use Ubuntu 5 days a week, using windows on weekends for gaming (Steam better work on Unix, as it will work on mac this December!!!).

[ghostborg]

Try the upgrade and if things don't go well then do a clean.
One thing to consider in the future - I put my home directory on a separate hard drive so if I need to do a new install I can leave my settings in tact. You still need to install the programs again but your settings will be there. Like, my screen saver never changed. You can do this with a separate partition as well. At the part of the install you need to select manual instead of use entire hard drive and do not format the home partition/drive. You will need to assign you swap and root partitions also. As always backup, backup, backup.
:lolflag:

[rudihawk]

My advice is pretty similar to what ghostburg said.

Do a clean install, it will work successfully 99/100 times whereas an upgrade is generally a bit more suspect. Putting your /home on a separate partition is a great idea too. I do it, and it has saved me soo many headaches when installing new versions of Ubuntu when they come out.

[duckleet]

I would clean install the os just for the fact that it could be a clean and fast system.


P.S. That is what i am doing for the update.

[tommpogg]

This topic has been discussed also in other threads, e.g. here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1454426) and, more recently, here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1757949).
Indeed, it poses an interesting and open question.

In my opinion, it would be useful to know if there is a way to perform a clean install while keeping configuration and installed programs (including non-free manually installed software).

Best regards

[mörgæs]

Yes, there is some advice for reinstalling the same packages in the end of this post:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1580857

[mringer]

In my opinion, it would be useful to know if there is a way to perform a clean install while keeping configuration and installed programs (including non-free manually installed software).


The reply that I have seen in various places is



dpkg --get-selections > installed-software


but on my PC this produces a list of ~~1000 packages; some of these are
obviously redundant. I am sure that only a tiny subset of this list are
actually useful & I dont know which. Please can anybody suggest
a way to eliminate some of the garbage? thank you.