I unfortunately will need to do a clean install of 13.04 after post-upgrade problems.

[TeamRocket1233c]

OK, I stupidly clicked "upgrade" (bad idea, do not try), and although my distro upgraded successfully to Raring Ringtail, to the point that it boots, I started getting a lot of crap with it as to broken packages, no desktop wallpaper, etc, so I will burn off a Ubuntu disc due to having no spare flash drives nearby that aren't being used that either aren't dead or are easy to find, back everything up (cleared some space on my flash drive that is in use for that purpose), and do a clean install, and hopefully everything will be working again. Going for the standard Unity spin, and then installing GNOME 3.8 and Cinnamon after everything's set up

The moral of the story is just because you can upgrade your distro without a disc by clicking "upgrade," don't mean it's a good idea. Learned that the hard way.

P.S. I tried GNOME 3.8, it's really sweet, it's basically a perfect combo of old GNOME and new GNOME if you either use its Classic mode or enable the right extensions in the normal GNOME Shell, specifically the Applications and Places menus, in addition, Unity 7 shows a lot of promise as well.

[Sam Mills]

I always clean install, never upgrade.

[TeamRocket1233c]

That's what I will do from now on.

[Paqman]

Meh, I've used upgrades loads for the last few versions. They used to be really flaky a few years ago, but I've found them to be really solid and reliable for a while now. Don't fear the upgrade!

I suspect that the more standardised your system is, the more likely you are to have a happy upgrade experience. The more stuff from outside the Ubuntu repos, or the more tweaks and customisations you do, the more like you are to need to do a clean install.

[TeamRocket1233c]

Well, clean install succeeded and I'm now running a proper Raring Ringtail, and it's epic. :)

[deadflowr]

Meh, I've used upgrades loads for the last few versions. They used to be really flaky a few years ago, but I've found them to be really solid and reliable for a while now. Don't fear the upgrade!

I suspect that the more standardised your system is, the more likely you are to have a happy upgrade experience. The more stuff from outside the Ubuntu repos, or the more tweaks and customisations you do, the more like you are to need to do a clean install.

Big +1

I've found the upgrader method, for the most part to be super solid. Mind you I won't upgrade on release day again, as that is when the servers are probably over-running themselves, and packages get slower downloading and possibly lost in the shuffle.

And yes, when upgrading, the upgrader will upgrade everything that is installed through the Ubuntu repos, so the more you have, the more it'll have to update. And it's really hard to say which packages you've installed will still function in the new upgrade.

[zer010]

I've never used the upgrade method, but I was tempted to do so yesterday. Although it will be a huge pain to do a clean install and reinstall all of the packages again, it is the best option IMO. Now if anyone can give me a tip on making the package reinstalls a little easier, I'm all ears. Since I'm using Lubuntu, I usually remove most of the included programs in favor of those I like, (VLC over gmplayer, FF over Chromium, etc.).

[Paqman]

Now if anyone can give me a tip on making the package reinstalls a little easier, I'm all ears.

Here you go. (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=261366)

If some of the packages were from PPAs you'll need to re-enable those after the upgrade is finished. That's just a matter of going into Software Sources (or your sources.list) and changing the version from "quantal" to "raring" before trying to reinstall the packages.

[Umbra Diaboli]

I always clean install, never upgrade.

Same here.

I tend to keep an external HD (where I copy and save all my stuff) fairly updated. That's makes it easier to format and reinstall Ubuntu (or any other distro).

Once a new release is out - I do a clean install to avoid the hassle of upgrade incompatibilities.

[ARooster]

I always do a clean install as well. Except I keep most of my data on a separate internal hard drive.