Upgrading Versions (Discussion)

[karasuman]

I'm still relatively new to Ubuntu. I had Gutsy for about two days before someone told me I could fix a problem by upgrading to Hardy, and that went really smoothly. On the other hand, I hadn't really had a chance to play around in Gutsy yet, or set things up in any particular way, or...anything.

As I recall, the move to Hardy was really simple. I let the update manager take care of it, and all it needed from me was a restart. Everything I'd done so far was preserved.

Is it always like that?

I'm really happy with Hardy. Everything's working great... or as great as I can reasonably expect, anyway. (I just discovered that I can't play Heroes of Might and Magic III for some stupid reason, even though it installed just great under Wine--the disc isn't recognized!) So I'm a little apprehensive about Intrepid looming on the horizon.

I KNOW I'm going to want to upgrade because... well... upgrade! But is that necessarily a good idea? Is there a chance that upgrading will bork something on my computer? If I don't like the upgrade, can I revert?

Does Dell ever actually get around to releasing custom versions of the updates? As far as I know, I still don't have their Hardy, and they still distribute Gutsy. Should I have waited for their Hardy?

I know I'm jumping the gun, here, but I'm just sort of new to the experience of such a short release cycle. I'd appreciate any thoughts.

[Distortedgamer]

I am also having questions upgrading. I have Fiesty (7.04) and I think that I should upgrade because everything that I need support for says to use 7.10 or 8.04.

Which one should I go to? Is it going to wipe out anything that I have already or just upgrade on top?

If I do go to 8.04, should I go to 7.10 first, then 8.04? Or just go all the way?

[Titan8990]

It will upgrade on top but I am a believe in: if it's not broken don't fix it.

[avtolle]

I'm still relatively new to Ubuntu. I had Gutsy for about two days before someone told me I could fix a problem by upgrading to Hardy, and that went really smoothly. On the other hand, I hadn't really had a chance to play around in Gutsy yet, or set things up in any particular way, or...anything.

As I recall, the move to Hardy was really simple. I let the update manager take care of it, and all it needed from me was a restart. Everything I'd done so far was preserved.

Is it always like that?

I'm really happy with Hardy. Everything's working great... or as great as I can reasonably expect, anyway. (I just discovered that I can't play Heroes of Might and Magic III for some stupid reason, even though it installed just great under Wine--the disc isn't recognized!) So I'm a little apprehensive about Intrepid looming on the horizon.

I KNOW I'm going to want to upgrade because... well... upgrade! But is that necessarily a good idea? Is there a chance that upgrading will bork something on my computer? If I don't like the upgrade, can I revert?

Does Dell ever actually get around to releasing custom versions of the updates? As far as I know, I still don't have their Hardy, and they still distribute Gutsy. Should I have waited for their Hardy?

I know I'm jumping the gun, here, but I'm just sort of new to the experience of such a short release cycle. I'd appreciate any thoughts.

I'll respond just to the reversion issue. If after upgrading, things don't work, or to make them work just seems like too much trouble, and the user wants to "revert", there is only one way; a clean install of the prior version, i.e., download the iso, burn to CD, etc.
That is why I always wait (with one exception, not here material) a month or so before taking the upgrade step, so I can follow the discussion on the Forums and see what, if anything, has been a problem, what fixes have been suggested and work for my particular situation, etc.

One way to see whether an upgrade will "work" or be problematic (assuming the user does not want to run a virtual machine to test) is to create a new partition upon which to d/l and install the new release, and give it a test from there. Another possible solution now that Wubi is around, and one has Windows, is to do a Wubi install of the new version "under Windows" to see how everything works, with the knowledge that the installation may be rather easily removed under Windows.

There really isn't one answer to your question, and it finally comes down to a choice between the "latest and greatest" and "if it isn't broken, don't fix it". HTH.