Painless upgrade...or re-install??

[tonewheelkev]

Like the look of 11.04....and am hoping to move from 10.04!!:)

Have used 10.04 for almost a year now, and the 'upgrade' now beckons.

How can I ensure that my programs and Download files remain intact following the process? I already have 11.04 as an .iso on cd, but am unsure how to proceed......:confused:

Any tips gratefully received!!

Kev

[johngreth]

You can never be sure. You just have to make a backup of everything important and then decide if upgrading is worth the cool new features. Doing a fresh install is usually better, but you have to reinstall everything. Clicking the upgrade button can be a bit buggy, but it is certainly easier. Either way there can be problems and you need to have a backup.

[gordintoronto]

You need to have backup anyway, because hard drives fail, usually at the worst possible time.

I've used Ubuntu for 3 1/2 years, and I've never upgraded, always did a fresh install. There are too many horror stories about upgrading, especially when you need to upgrade twice.

Doing a fresh install is a lot easier if you have a separate /home partition. You still need to re-install all your software, but that can be mostly automated.

[blauendonau]

Upgrades can be a bit iffy, especially with the Maverick -> Natty transition, which appears to be more buggy. Nonetheless, if pulled off successfully, it's much more convenient because your files/programs remain intact.

It's risk vs. reward. I like to think of it as: if upgrading breaks the OS then you can do a fresh install and you won't lose anything compared to if you'd done a fresh install in the first place. If upgrading works, you just saved several hours of reinstallations. (Obviously, all important files should be backed up to an external medium first.) Of course with two upgrades in a row there's more chance for error, but I think it's worth a shot.