What is upgrading like?

[wildmanne39]

+1 for a clean install, there are some significant differences that makes it hard to upgrade from 10.04 to 12.04 or above.

Plus it takes a lot longer to upgrade then it does to do a clean install and with an upgrade you will most likely end up with a broken system.
Thanks

[C.S.Cameron]

I used to upgrade twice a year, never had a problem, except sometimes it took days and many times some programs did not upgrade.
I always feared a power outage when upgrading.

Nowadays I install fresh and reuse the /home partition. If the install is not using a /home partition, I copy the old home folder to the new install using rsync, (Grsync actually).
It is much faster than upgrading.

10.04 to 12.04 was no problem this way.

[furything]

I used to upgrade twice a year, never had a problem, except sometimes it took days and many times some programs did not upgrade.

I guess it depends how many packages you have installed to how long it takes and what breaks. The devs I believe take a long time making sure an upgrade works (I know that upgrades don't always work - believe me)

I know the pain of upgrade failures but am obviously in the minority - I always upgrade although I do this mostly from a cd/dvd as I have 6 pcs to upgrade.

I used to upgrade every 6 months as well but switched to LTS from 12.04 for mythtv boxes and kids PCs. My own box I always keep the latest GA.

As for data - all boxes bar myth are dual boot so share an ntfs partition for use as local backup. I my box/mythboxes are backed up on a weekly basis at minimum to external hard drives. Regular backups of important data avoids any major pain.

[Stonecold1995]

I'd go as far as using dd to create an image on an external drive in case you have to restore your entire computer back in a snap.

I can't agree more. It takes a bit longer and you'll need a bigger backup drive, but it's literally a clone of your hard drive, which makes it REALLY easy to restore the backup.

[Warren Hill]

I'd go as far as using dd to create an image on an external drive in case you have to restore your entire computer back in a snap.

Could not agree more upgrading can be hit and miss so you need good backups.

that said take a look here

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/04/ubuntu-10-04-12-04-upgrade-how-well-does-it-go

Seems its getting better