Is upgrading from 13.04 to 13.10 worth "several hours" install??

[ripx2]

Got the option, then picked it...but them it said it would be an hour to download all the things that will change and that the upgrade installation could take up to several hours...is it worth it? Im really worried about my virtualbox as Ive read it breaks with every upgrade and ive got both a registed win 7 and office that i use regularly.

thoughts???

[TheFu]

Well, you don't really have any choice.
Support for 13.04 ends in January and running a non-supported/non-patched OS really isn't an option.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases for reference.

There is a very good reason to run LTS releases.

[buzzingrobot]

What kind of net link do you have? Upgrading over dialup would, I'd imagine, take a very long time. Over a broadband link, not very long. (I can download the entire install image in 4-5 minutes, depending on the mirror used. I've found that downloads from Ubuntu links rotate through a succession of mirrors, so if I stop a slow download and start another one, I often see a large speed boost. There is also a function in the software and updates tool to select the fastest available mirror.)

If bandwidth is the issue, and you do want to move to 13.10, then perhaps just finding time to download the 13.10 ISO and doing a clean install might be best. That way, if there are problems, you have the install DVD/USB and can start over. If a live upgrade goes bad, you're stuck with no install DVD/USB and the prospect of more long hours of another live upgrade attempt.

Is 13.10 worth upgrading *right now*? Frankly, if you don't have problems that you know 13.10 fixes.,probably not. It's a modest incremental improvement, plus some new stufff going on with scopes and lenses (which you may or may not want, in any case.)

(BTW, upgrading via slow low-bandwidth connections is an issue for all Linux distributions. They are all built around an assumption that users have fast broadband connections.)

[craig10x]

If you only run one ubuntu, then download the iso...see if it offers you the option to upgrade on the installer...if it does, use that...it will only take about 20-25 minutes that way...

For me the upgrades from the installer have worked pretty darn well...and it installs everything directly from the iso instead of having to go to the internet...
You can read about my experience here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2181643

[ikt]

Got the option, then picked it...but them it said it would be an hour to download all the things that will change and that the upgrade installation could take up to several hours...is it worth it? Im really worried about my virtualbox as Ive read it breaks with every upgrade and ive got both a registed win 7 and office that i use regularly.

thoughts???

What are you doing on your ubuntu virtualbox?

As others have suggested if you don't need to update all the time go with 12.04 LTS, but if you're running on 12.10-13.10, upgrading is something you're going to need to do.

[help_me2]

That's why I do fresh install every time. I use a flash drive and it only takes 7 minutes. I keep the same home folder, which makes things nice and easy. And then I spend another 15min or so tweaking and reinstalling apps. Easy peasy.

[craig10x]

Fresh installs don't take long....but it's more a matter of how many programs and data you have...if you have a lot of stuff, and you have a good upgrade, it can save a lot of extra work...
but if you don't have much, then a fresh install would be the way to go...

[john_ferrier]

I suggest you just hold for one or two months. Ubuntu 13.10 is buggy, if you have a look at the bug reports on Launchpad, I am sure your'll be frightened. For Ubuntu, the .10 versions were actually beta versions of .04 versions, and Canonical's current foucus on their phones and tablet makes it even worse. Unity is only developped and supported by Canonical, things are just getting worse and worse like rolling a snow ball!

[rrnbtter]

Greetings,
Regarding VirtualBox, I just installed the VirtualBox included in the Trusty development version Software Center and it opened my Windows 7 VM just perfect. I have been using the same Windows 7 VDI file since Natty or before. I keep a backup without all of the software installed just in case I have a problem. In the couple of years since I created it I haven't needed to use it. VirtualBox may get broken for a short period but that has nothing to do with the VDI file that is the virtual HD. Usually you can just regress a version and be back in business. I have a 700meg scaled version of Windows 7 that I use so my VDI file is only 10 Gig software and all. I keep all of my downloads and installers on my Trusty /Home so as not to take up space in the VM. FYI

[eyTkT7Y]

Got the option, then picked it...but them it said it would be an hour to download all the things that will change and that the upgrade installation could take up to several hours...is it worth it? Im really worried about my virtualbox as Ive read it breaks with every upgrade and ive got both a registed win 7 and office that i use regularly.

I just installed 13.10 this morning. VirtualBox 4.3 is working fine. The VirtualBox saucy repository isn't ready yet, so I just used the raring one. Worked like a peach!