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haapsalu_sall
April 22nd, 2011, 06:24 PM
Just curious. Do you:

1. Upgrade to the latest version of Ubuntu? Immediately? Do you wait? How long?
2. Do you upgrade through Update Manager or do you do a fresh install?

):P

cgroza
April 22nd, 2011, 06:27 PM
I upgrade straight away. Ok, after 30 minutes after release because that is how long it takes to download.:D

toupeiro
April 22nd, 2011, 06:54 PM
I usually update my main PC at RC and roll into the final version.

aaaantoine
April 22nd, 2011, 06:56 PM
I wait until at least the weekend after final release to upgrade. My Ubuntu box is my primary production machine, and I do not want to risk screwing it up during my work hours.

Sometimes it's a good idea to wait an additional month for the more common bugs to be fixed. But then again, if everybody did that, there'd be nobody to discover those bugs. :)

neu5eeCh
April 22nd, 2011, 06:57 PM
I upgraded the least two times.

Upgrades take a loooooooooooooooooooooong time. Mine were 3 to 4 hour affairs (unattended). On the other hand, if you do a fresh install it could take you another 3 to 4 hours to re-customize your system.

If you haven't donwloaded lots of Apps and you haven't customized all that much, I would do a fresh install. It's fast and you reduce potential problems.

Throne777
April 22nd, 2011, 07:00 PM
I usually update as soon as it comes out. However, I'm of two mindsets with 11.04. I really want to try out Unity, but I'm not sure my computer will be able to run it very well, so might stick with 10.10 for now (I know you don't necssarily need to run Unity on 11.04, but then I see little point in updating if you don't).

AlanR8
April 22nd, 2011, 07:02 PM
I always go for a re-install....around about Alpha...!!!! Then upgrade all the way home. Probably fully bork the system a few times and go through the process again...Fun eh....

All my data, tunes, docs, mail etc is out there on the cloud so I consider my devices as fair game for updating.

aG93IGRvIGkgdWJ1bnR1Pw==
April 22nd, 2011, 07:05 PM
I don't upgrade when the new version regresses in terms of stability and usability.

leviathan8
April 22nd, 2011, 07:18 PM
I'll stay with 10.04 till 2013.

user1397
April 22nd, 2011, 07:30 PM
That has varied for me so much that I couldn't even tell you what I normally do. I'll say that for this release I'll probably just do a fresh install of kubuntu natty.

Ramon444
April 22nd, 2011, 07:58 PM
I am happy user of Ubuntu 10.10 (2 month since i moved from WIndows) and all works fine on my laptop (Acer Aspire 5930G). And i will update to 11.04 as fast as it will be available. But as new user i don't how to make it better: Update or fresh install?
Any recommendation?
Will it save all my repositories? (or how to upgrade them to Natty)

AlanR8
April 22nd, 2011, 08:03 PM
Personal preference, please note PERSONAL, is a clean install.....

el_koraco
April 22nd, 2011, 08:04 PM
Personal preference, please note PERSONAL, is a clean install.....

+10
ain't nothing like a freshly brewed system.

Ramon444
April 22nd, 2011, 08:10 PM
+10
ain't nothing like a freshly brewed system.
Like Beer :)

Can i ask why, except taste ? :)

And can i save my wine and Shotwell(photo base)? My home directory is on / partition.

william_nbg
April 22nd, 2011, 08:16 PM
I always tell myself, I'm going to wait until the next version is released. But, I seldom do. I usually update about 3 weeks early. Which is dumb, because I need my computer for work.

As far as: update/fresh install
It depends on how much I played around with the last version. If I changed a lot of of conf. etc .. I'll do a fresh install. But if I just used mostly default set up, then I might update.
:D

Dustin2128
April 22nd, 2011, 09:12 PM
I don't upgrade when the new version regresses in terms of stability and usability.
Still at 8.04 then, eh? ;)

Old_Grey_Wolf
April 22nd, 2011, 10:08 PM
I have 7 computers. I do different things with them.

The computers that are used for every day use; such as, the ones my grandchildren and I use for getting work done on a daily basis stay at the LTS for two years. When the next LTS comes out, I do a fresh install in a dual boot configuration along side of the currently used LTS on one of the computers. I copy the configuration files, packages of downloaded applications, etc., to the new LTS version and test it out. If it works to my liking, I install it on the other computers that are used for getting work done on a daily basis. The LTS releases are supported for 3 years; therefore, I have a year to make my decision and work out a plan for the migration.

I have other computers where I install the current releases, alpha releases, beta releases, other distros, etc. I may use single boot, dual boot, triple boot, or hypervisors; such as, Virtualbox, Zen, KVM, and VMware in my playground. I have used Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) in my playground, and learned about DNS, NTP, DHCP, LDAP, etc. My playground has benefited me immensely in staying up-to-date on technology. Without FOSS that would have been difficult and expensive. I am 63 years old and my skills are still in demand when other people are worried about being laid off.

Without FOSS and the opportunity it provides for learning, I may have been 'persuaded' to accept early retirement years ago.

weasel fierce
April 22nd, 2011, 11:19 PM
Not really a pattern.

With some releases, I upgraded ahead of time to see it shape up.
Some I upgraded as it was "official"
Some I waited a month or two.

And one I accidentally skipped because I forgot to check :P


Most of the time, I just do the upgrade install. Even in the days where that seemed to break more often than not, I was always lucky. I've done clean installs twice for a new version, I believe.

K_45
April 22nd, 2011, 11:31 PM
Seeing as I use Debian and a new release comes out every 2 years or so, I choose clean install. After 2 yrs I check all the hardware, see if I need to upgrade anything and do a fresh net install, which will take around an hour or 2.

AlanR8
April 23rd, 2011, 10:09 PM
Mr Wolf....

I have numerous systems on the home network thankfully NONE of them are "MISSION CRITICAL" OMG......!!!

They all just work and play well together.

I have a very part time W7 machine that my son connects from time to time, we have an iMac desktop that her indoors RELYS upon and uses every day...we have 4 more Linux boxes on top of that.

Everything just works together.....

Old_Grey_Wolf
April 23rd, 2011, 10:41 PM
Mr Wolf....

I have numerous systems on the home network thankfully NONE of them are "MISSION CRITICAL" OMG......!!!

They all just work and play well together.

I have a very part time W7 machine that my son connects from time to time, we have an iMac desktop that her indoors RELYS upon and uses every day...we have 4 more Linux boxes on top of that.

Everything just works together.....

I'm going to try to stay on topic with this reply. :)

While I don't think of the computers that the grandchildren use as Mission Critical, they do I'm sure. Try telling an 8 year old they can't play an on-line game because your ISP is having problems. :)

I have a Windows 7 box on the network for watching Netflix on a big screen TV. There are other computers that my wife and children have running Windows 7 and Vista connected to my network. They all work fine together. However, that has nothing to do with new releases of a Linux distro.

I choose to upgrade to a new release of an operating system in a controlled and cautious manner. I guess that comes from working for a large company.

K_45
April 23rd, 2011, 10:56 PM
I'm going to try to stay on topic with this reply. :)

While I don't think of the computers that the grandchildren use as Mission Critical, they do I'm sure. Try telling an 8 year old they can't play an on-line game because your ISP is having problems. :)

I have a Windows 7 box on the network for watching Netflix on a big screen TV. There are other computers that my wife and children have running Windows 7 and Vista connected to my network. They all work fine together. However, that has nothing to do with new releases of a Linux distro.

I choose to upgrade to a new release of an operating system in a controlled and cautious manner. I guess that comes from working for a large company.

You'd probably like Debian then. I switched, for one reason, as its released when its ready, which is probably every 2yrs or so.

JRV
April 23rd, 2011, 11:09 PM
My main machine runs 10.04 LTS (Lucid). I will do a clean install when the next long term support version is released.

My second machine runs 10.04 LTS (Lucid). I normally keep the current version on this machine, but I didn't like 10.10 (Maverick). I will be doing a clean install of 11.04 (Natty) on this machine when it is released.

My testing machine will get the next version when the first alpha is available.

TheNerdAL
April 23rd, 2011, 11:28 PM
I upgrade when Beta 1 is released. I use the update manager during the fall and do a fresh install in the spring. That way, I don't have many errors or stuff.

ausmuso
April 24th, 2011, 01:32 AM
I don't upgrade that often, less than once a year on average, and then only when the release is at least a month old. Reason: I use my Linux box for the apps that are on it, not as a toy or for the glamour. So as long as my Ubuntu is stable and fast, I've got all the apps I need and they work the way I want them to, why upgrade?

When I do, I ALWAYS do a clean install on a freshly checked and formatted disk. I have tried running an upgrade a few times in the past, but they never quite worked for me the way I had hoped.

Johnsie
April 24th, 2011, 02:03 AM
I maintain alot of computers in work and personally. I experiment with the pre-release on one machine, but generally I wait until a few months after the release before upgrading all the other machines. The reason being is that there are usually teething problems with a new release of any OS. I also find it frustrating that I need to upgrade every single application just to upgrade the OS. This can be very time consuming, especially because I work with alot of computers.

On the server at work I am always hesitant to do an upgrade because I'm afraid it will break something. One time I upgraded an Ubuntu server and it depreciated alot of the php scripts I was using. Another time it made FOP generate pdf files slightly different and other times it has messed with my grub and apache settings. In my job it's absolutely critical that the systems work as expected. Even the security updates have caused breakage but I install them anyway because I don't want the systems to be compromised. Sometimes doing that feels like playing Russian Roulette.

3rdalbum
April 24th, 2011, 02:11 AM
Before release, and fresh install.

K_45
April 24th, 2011, 02:21 AM
I maintain alot of computers in work and personally. I experiment with the pre-release on one machine, but generally I wait until a few months after the release before upgrading all the other machines. The reason being is that there are usually teething problems with a new release of any OS. I also find it frustrating that I need to upgrade every single application just to upgrade the OS. This can be very time consuming, especially because I work with alot of computers.

On the server at work I am always hesitant to do an upgrade because I'm afraid it will break something. One time I upgraded an Ubuntu server and it depreciated alot of the php scripts I was using. Another time it made FOP generate pdf files slightly different and other times it has messed with my grub and apache settings. In my job it's absolutely critical that the systems work as expected. Even the security updates have caused breakage but I install them anyway because I don't want the systems to be compromised. Sometimes doing that feels like playing Russian Roulette.

I'd say Debian stable is for you.

Johnsie
April 24th, 2011, 02:27 AM
I have looked into that, but Ubuntu has the biggest community and therefore it's easier to get support. If Unity gets forced as the default then I think there might be a mass migration elsewhere though. I'm watching and waiting.

One of our legacy servers has Freebsd on it and that's a nightmare to get support for.

user_linux08
April 24th, 2011, 02:38 AM
"To Upgrade or not upgrade" so said Shakespeare.
If you feel like Christopher Columbus. You "upgrade" with First Alpha release.
If you feel like Anthony Bourdain. You would upgrade when Beta 1 is released.
If you feel like Mother Teresa. You would wait until the final release and upgrade (or fresh install).

But seriously. It all depends how, and the purpose for which each uses the Ubuntu. Since I use the system for tangible work, rather then for play, I wait until the official release from canonical, and automatically let it upgrade the system.
Since I am not that savvy with the command line, and prefer not to deal with hours of debugging codes, is another reason for me to wait.