Rolling Releases

[pfeiffep]

So putting aside the calendar quirks how will this impact a user who wants to stay current? It just so happened that I switched to Ubuntu 12.10 in Feb. and thought joining the QA team and doing some testing would be a great way to introduce a new OS to me. So I ran both 12.10 and the daily 13.04 concurrently on 2 machines and I'm confident that this immersion paid off in spades. I've since adopted the 13.04 final and started evaluation Linux Mint 14.

I'm not quite certain how to employ this rolling release and use it to MY benefit. I really don't want to ignore a new methodology, but I'm ready to start using this a bit more in depth and start focusing on the functionality.

I was hoping that a rolling release would help me by being able to just upgrade raring periodically and not have to perform a 'fresh install' of saucy ever. I'm kinda making an anaolgy to M$ here with their service packs .. I was ably to totally skip Win ME & Vista staying with XP until I adopted Ubuntu.

Hopefully I'm not offending anyone by mentioning M$ and I'd like to think that the price of freedom in computing is time spent learning!

[roly33]

So putting aside the calendar quirks how will this impact a user who wants to stay current? It just so happened that I switched to Ubuntu 12.10 in Feb. and thought joining the QA team and doing some testing would be a great way to introduce a new OS to me. So I ran both 12.10 and the daily 13.04 concurrently on 2 machines and I'm confident that this immersion paid off in spades. I've since adopted the 13.04 final and started evaluation Linux Mint 14.

I'm not quite certain how to employ this rolling release and use it to MY benefit. I really don't want to ignore a new methodology, but I'm ready to start using this a bit more in depth and start focusing on the functionality.

I was hoping that a rolling release would help me by being able to just upgrade raring periodically and not have to perform a 'fresh install' of saucy ever. I'm kinda making an anaolgy to M$ here with their service packs .. I was ably to totally skip Win ME & Vista staying with XP until I adopted Ubuntu.

Hopefully I'm not offending anyone by mentioning M$ and I'd like to think that the price of freedom in computing is time spent learning!

All you have to do is change your Repo's over to the Saucy ones and away you go.

This thread might be of some use to you.

Roland

[pfeiffep]

Thanks roly33 for the link. In addition to some humor interspersed I found that there was some real content. I'll certainly be waiting for a couple of months to jump on the bandwagon!

[craig10x]

Trouble is, i used the terminal commands to move over to saucy from raring and things really got borked up...i even tried making the changes by edited the list since they were still reading raring, but even after all that bother, my updater wouldn't work properly anymore...

I ended up having to re-install 13.04 from the final iso and that is running smooth as silk...

So ends my attempt to "roll" with development...they really need a more fool proof way of moving into each new version...upgrading can be hit or miss...i know that is what the developers mentioned they are aiming to do, but question is WHEN will it be available...obviously not for 13.04....but perhaps before 13.10 is released? They haven't said as of yet...

So looks like i won't be participating in development anymore...it was kind of fun..i will miss it...and it worked surprisingly well...but this "change over" business...not always so successful, as it is right now...
What i liked about the idea of "rolling" is getting new stuff, getting each new version, and not having to keep re-installing to get it (and i am not fond of upgrading final versions to final versions...they can also be hit or miss too)...

Now, it looks like i am stuck back in having to re-install every 6 months again...

[sgage]

Trouble is, i used the terminal commands to move over to saucy from raring and things really got borked up...i even tried making the changes by edited the list since they were still reading raring, but even after all that bother, my updater wouldn't work properly anymore...

I ended up having to re-install 13.04 from the final iso and that is running smooth as silk...

So ends my attempt to "roll" with development...they really need a more fool proof way of moving into each new version...upgrading can be hit or miss...i know that is what the developers mentioned they are aiming to do, but question is WHEN will it be available...obviously not for 13.04....but perhaps before 13.10 is released? They haven't said as of yet...

So looks like i won't be participating in development anymore...it was kind of fun..i will miss it...and it worked surprisingly well...but this "change over" business...not always so successful, as it is right now...
What i liked about the idea of "rolling" is getting new stuff, getting each new version, and not having to keep re-installing to get it (and i am not fond of upgrading final versions to final versions...they can also be hit or miss too)...

Now, it looks like i am stuck back in having to re-install every 6 months again...

Did you edit Ubuntu.info as outlined in the saucy sources thread?

[craig10x]

Yep...i was pretty careful too (i found it rather tedious...there was so many lines that i had to substitute saucy for raring in)...and it still didn't help...i got frustrated and ended up re-installing 13.04 final (i had that as a back up disc)...which is where i am now...

Actually, a real rolling release doesn't require doing such things...i think they said they wanted to make it so you would not have to do this upgrading thing anymore...that there would be a kind of "symlink" that would automatically "point" to the next development release without you having to do a thing...question is: when and also how would you add that "symlink" or whatever it will be...

[sgage]

Yep...i was pretty careful too (i found it rather tedious...there was so many lines that i had to substitute saucy for raring in)...and it still didn't help...i got frustrated and ended up re-installing 13.04 final (i had that as a back up disc)...which is where i am now...

Actually, a real rolling release doesn't require doing such things...i think they said they wanted to make it so you would not have to do this upgrading thing anymore...that there would be a kind of "symlink" that would automatically "point" to the next development release without you having to do a thing...question is: when and also how would you add that "symlink" or whatever it will be...

Ubuntu is not a "real" rolling release yet. I'm not sure what the plan was/is. A 'symlink' thing sounds sort of like a hybrid setup to me.

The way I moved to saucy was to simply bring my sources.list into gedit, replace all raring with saucy, and did a dist-upgrade. Well, that went haywire in a way that sounds similar to what you experienced. I made those changes to Ubuntu.info, and did the raring-saucy change on my backup sources file. And it worked perfectly.

Anyway, I don't understand what is going on with "rolling releases" and all. I'm just going along as if it was the same old dev cycle. I'm not sure anything is really written in stone, other than Mr. Shuttleworth making a comment to the effect that the dev version WAS the rolling release. That's how I'm playing it.

[craig10x]

I hear you...well, in the developers discussion they said the plan was to add that new way to make it point to each new version...one had mentioned about a symlink, but they did say they had to work out how best to add in whatever they decide to use to do it...it sounded to me that they definitely wanted to do it...just had to figure the best way to do it...

I would imagine they should have it ready long before 14.04 arrives...so i would think sometime during this 13.10 development cycle...and i hope we will learn how it is coming along during the upcoming developer discussions...

Until then, i think i will just staying with 13.04 final...though i will certainly take a look at 13.10 development when daily builds start becoming available...though i would not consider installing until the "symlink" or whatever is actually available to add in...

Honestly, i would just upgrade from final to final...but i know that can be hit or miss also...i seem to do very well on development, though...

[JonPaul]

Hi Craig

It was a cut and paste at the beginning of ubuntu.info, not changing raring for saucy....

Post #7 on how to change repos to saucy

So far (touch wood) have had no hassles.

JonPaul

[craig10x]

Hi Craig

It was a cut and paste at the beginning of ubuntu.info, not changing raring for saucy....

Post #7 on how to change repos to saucy

So far (touch wood) have had no hassles.

JonPaul

Thanks...i think i see where i messed up! Oh well, i guess i will just have to watch to see when they add the new method to 13.10...meanwhile, i will just stay on the 13.04 final....
When the new method is available, then i might consider installing 13.10 development at that point...but i definitely want that easier method before i go back into development again...