Badger badger badger... should I switch?

[blueturtl]

I've been using Hoary Hedgehog as my primary desktop OS now for several months and the Breezy Badger official release looms right ahead. Since I've got all my hardware and software functioning pretty much the way I like it, is there any point in upgrading (being former MS user makes me a bit skeptical towards upgrading without a very good reason)?

Some of you've already tried it as the preview release, so can you give me an idea what I should expect to improve (or go downhill) compared to Hoary?

I would consider speed and stability hints on the same hardware very valuable, as I will not be purchasing any new hardware anytime soon (yay, it's no longer required)!

[doobit]

I would say no, but that's just my personal opinion. If everything works great the way you have it, then there is no reason to upgrade.

If you like experimenting as part of your computing experience, then I would encourage you to get another small hard drive or make a partition, or get the live CD, and load Breezy Badger just so you can see the difference.

[XDevHald]

You can upgrade and keep everything as it is, but you will be getting new applications and dependencies for these applications to work.

Also, bug issues is not a big deal for most users such as myself who are not experiencing ANY issues at all. I have been running Breezy for almost 2 months if not longer before I had Hoary, and I love it :)

It's really up to you, but the release of Breezy is October, so again the bug issue should not be a problem as we're getting closer to the release.

[Ibuntu_52]

I've heard there are some bugs with the xserver that is why I choose to wait.
I can't wait for breezy because the sound issues *should*;) be fixed.

[Orunitia]

Well if everything is working for you right now, might as well play it safe and wait until breezy is completely stable. Though it is really stable for me and I don't have any problems with it.

[bob_c_b]

I usually wait a couple weeks when a new distro version drops, but this time I am getting ready to move and having the make some signifigant arrangements (and in the middle of a job change) so I probably won't risk my work PC until things settle down at the end of November/early December. But it's going to drive me nuts because I really have high hopes for Breezy to take care of those last couple little nags that I have with Hoary (which is has been oustanding).

[Muhammad]

I have no problem whatsoever with the Breezy Badger, it's up to you. But I'd say go ahead!

[Cirkus]

It's what I'm using; I haven't noticed any real problems with it.

[blueturtl]

Booted into WindowsXP to play Half-Life 2. The game freezes up up up up up and I go into the task manager, click on 'end process' which results in a BSOD, my disk drives shutting down and the computer rebooting. :confused: I sat there for a while, and then I realized I'm gonna be upgrading to Breezy once the official release is out, just so I can wipe the XP installation off my hard-drive. :) My partitions are currently kind of fixed since the system was originally set up for use with Windows (Ubuntu resides on a second hard-disk, which is smaller, slower and could be partitioned better). Maybe I'll get to all of that once I have the incentive to go ahead with a new install. :smile:

[poofyhairguy]

I personally think its worth it for the new Totem. But I will say that if you are happy, why mess with that?

[benplaut]

i use it, and epgraded packages make is rdefinately worht it :cool:

[blueturtl]

But I will say that if you are happy, why mess with that?
Well, I was happy anyway. But the partitioning on my system really sucks (because I originally thought, I'd be using Windows mostly), so I guess if I'd be reinstalling anyway, I might as well wait for Breezy to come along and then do a fresh install. Plus I'll get 20 gigs more of space once the Windows partition goes out the window.

I was thinking about reinstalling so that the partitions would go like this:

HDA (120gb)
50 mb /boot
1000 mb swap
6 gb /
~110 gb /shared (for user files and misc stuff)

HDB (40gb)
~39 gb /home

I think I will be sticking with EXT3 as the filesystem type.

edit: High points of interest in the Breezy Badger release:

The new Kernel
OpenOffice2
Menu editing, and the new Gnome
possible speed increase

[zeca_pedra]

I must agree with doobit... if everything works just fine, please don't upgrade!
I tried to upgrade once and my system went down, so I had to (re)install once again Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary!
The curious thing was that with Breezy on my machine I got the stupid error that my processor was not compatible with power management :-(
I found this ridiculous because I have a very good machine for my purposes with many generic and proved to work in many systems devices:
- realtek net card;
- Nvidia geforce4 MX440
- CD-RW Plextor 40/21/40A
- DVD-Rom Sansung
- Motherboard Soltek
- Pentium 4 at 2GHz
...
I don't understand why it didn't work after upgrade I consider my machine to be perfect for every system and, in fact, it worked with other distros (Fedora, Kurumin, Mandrake 8.2, Mandriva, SuSe 9.3, just to name a few)
So my advise is: don't upgarde if everything is working great! My Ubuntu is working just the way I want :-D

[bugi]

...mushrooms, mushrooms :D
I have tried Colony 5 and i'm really impressed. I think you could change to higher version but do not do it by upgrade. Upgrades are rather insecure and it is really much safer to do a fresh installation if you don't want to have surprises ;) . Gnome 2.12 is really polished and has some new apps which makes it more userfriendly :)

[darkmatter]

I was thinking about reinstalling so that the partitions would go like this:

HDA (120gb)
50 mb /boot
1000 mb swap
6 gb /
~110 gb /shared (for user files and misc stuff)

HDB (40gb)
~39 gb /home

I think I will be sticking with EXT3 as the filesystem type.

edit: High points of interest in the Breezy Badger release:

The new Kernel
OpenOffice2
Menu editing, and the new Gnome
possible speed increase


I'd recommend 100 mb for /boot.

[jdong]

I must agree with doobit... if everything works just fine, please don't upgrade!
I tried to upgrade once and my system went down, so I had to (re)install once again Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary!
The curious thing was that with Breezy on my machine I got the stupid error that my processor was not compatible with power management :-(
I found this ridiculous because I have a very good machine for my purposes with many generic and proved to work in many systems devices:
- realtek net card;
- Nvidia geforce4 MX440
- CD-RW Plextor 40/21/40A
- DVD-Rom Sansung
- Motherboard Soltek
- Pentium 4 at 2GHz
...
I don't understand why it didn't work after upgrade I consider my machine to be perfect for every system and, in fact, it worked with other distros (Fedora, Kurumin, Mandrake 8.2, Mandriva, SuSe 9.3, just to name a few)
So my advise is: don't upgarde if everything is working great! My Ubuntu is working just the way I want :-D

upgrading really is your choice; it's appropriate for some while not others. On one hand, if your system is working fine, there is no reason to upgrade (until the 18 month security update period is up -- then do upgrade!). On the other hand, it's cool to refresh your system with brand-new software from the Open Source world periodically.


If you're concerned about an unsmooth upgrade, I would wait until at least Breezy is out and initial user reports from those (like me) who are daredevils look good :)


As far as power management, non-mobile P4's are pretty notorious for random hard shutdowns while adjusting frequency (making the computer turn off without warning), so majority of these have been blacklisted.