6 ms·

I have always found that continous upgrade eventually break the system. A clean install should be the recommended choice.

Theriac25 13y ago
That's just beyond retarded. I weep when people have been conditioned by Canonical (and Microsoft) to accept this.
- Daishiman 13y ago
  It's not all Canonical's faults. A highly customized install with a few extra libs here and there and some proprietary softare can easily wreck havoc on a system.
  - gw 13y ago
    The same problem persisted after I did a fresh install, so in this case there is something that it doesn't like about my computer, a Lenovo G780.
  - zanny 13y ago
    I had a continuous Arch install for 4 years without massive breakage through half a dozen major switches, including the fs layout and the systemd transition. I just upgraded to an SSD and decided to clean slate rather than carry extra fs creep baggage that isn't linked to a package to remove, but I still have that partition around, and I'm pretty sure if I upgraded it it might still boot. It is why I like rolling releases - rather than have catastrophic breakage every half year, you continuously migrate upwards. It means occasionally you need to pull up a web browser to see why your desktop is missing, but its better than doing a dist-upgrade and getting an unbootable system.
  - icebraining 13y ago
    My Debian installation has been the same for six years and survived moving from Gnome → XFCE → Fluxbox → Awesome and installing bleeding-edge mesa and radeon drivers, plus other kinds on tinkering. Oh, and moving to an SSD.
- bashinator 13y ago
  Especially since the upstream distro (Debian) is absolutely phenomenal when it comes to in-place major upgrades.
- candl 13y ago
  Here's a video of a continuous upgrade from ms-dos through every windows version all up to windows 7 (a timespan of ~20 years) that proves it's possible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnehDhGa14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnehDhGa14
  - gavinpc 13y ago
    The whole time I was watching this I was thinking, how would I explain to a normal human being why it is that I can't look away. Windows 3.0 especially took me back to my adolescence, like a smell.
sampo 13y ago
I have been updating my Lenovo laptop every 6 months since 7.03 and it's still going fine.
- chrismorgan 13y ago
  And I since 9.10. Sure, I've had my problems with it due to certain customisations applied, but to the best of my knowledge nothing that I haven't brought on myself, and I've been able to sort it out each time without significant trouble.
- aclevernickname 13y ago
  7.04 install upgraded to 13.10 here. Worst I had to do was apt-get -f install after an apt-get dist-upgrade. So six years now.
kolev 13y ago
Yes, same experience. Unfortunately, for the peace of mind, you should always rebuild - in-place upgrades for Desktop never work smoothly.
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  I've only ever had one hose my system but that's because I locked the screen while the upgrade was in progress. The upgrade never finished because I couldn't unlock and answer any of its conflict resolution questions. Today's upgrade was pretty smooth and uneventful.
- asveikau 13y ago
  I guess I should stop using my Debian machines where I did an install in previous decades (decades, plural) and copied the setup from hard drive to hard drive across several physical machine rebuilds. Up to now I had no idea that this never works smoothly.
  - kolev 13y ago
    Debian != Ubuntu
    - asveikau 13y ago
      So?
      - kolev 13y ago
        We're talking about Ubuntu here - that was my point. I've been upgrading Ubuntu Desktop for years (a decade, singular) and I've always been struggling - especially if I ventured to install an alpha and then keep upgrading that. Compared to OS X, on which I always upgrade to the first Developer Preview and keep upgrading on, although OS X comes with problems, too, the GM usually fixes it all up. With Ubuntu, it's best to script your environment and rebuild clean. At least my experience. Garbage always piles up otherwise!

Theriac25 13y ago

That's just beyond retarded. I weep when people have been conditioned by Canonical (and Microsoft) to accept this.

Daishiman 13y ago
It's not all Canonical's faults. A highly customized install with a few extra libs here and there and some proprietary softare can easily wreck havoc on a system.
- gw 13y ago
  The same problem persisted after I did a fresh install, so in this case there is something that it doesn't like about my computer, a Lenovo G780.
- zanny 13y ago
  I had a continuous Arch install for 4 years without massive breakage through half a dozen major switches, including the fs layout and the systemd transition. I just upgraded to an SSD and decided to clean slate rather than carry extra fs creep baggage that isn't linked to a package to remove, but I still have that partition around, and I'm pretty sure if I upgraded it it might still boot. It is why I like rolling releases - rather than have catastrophic breakage every half year, you continuously migrate upwards. It means occasionally you need to pull up a web browser to see why your desktop is missing, but its better than doing a dist-upgrade and getting an unbootable system.
- icebraining 13y ago
  My Debian installation has been the same for six years and survived moving from Gnome → XFCE → Fluxbox → Awesome and installing bleeding-edge mesa and radeon drivers, plus other kinds on tinkering. Oh, and moving to an SSD.
bashinator 13y ago
Especially since the upstream distro (Debian) is absolutely phenomenal when it comes to in-place major upgrades.
candl 13y ago
Here's a video of a continuous upgrade from ms-dos through every windows version all up to windows 7 (a timespan of ~20 years) that proves it's possible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnehDhGa14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnehDhGa14
- gavinpc 13y ago
  The whole time I was watching this I was thinking, how would I explain to a normal human being why it is that I can't look away. Windows 3.0 especially took me back to my adolescence, like a smell.

sampo 13y ago

I have been updating my Lenovo laptop every 6 months since 7.03 and it's still going fine.

chrismorgan 13y ago
And I since 9.10. Sure, I've had my problems with it due to certain customisations applied, but to the best of my knowledge nothing that I haven't brought on myself, and I've been able to sort it out each time without significant trouble.
aclevernickname 13y ago
7.04 install upgraded to 13.10 here. Worst I had to do was apt-get -f install after an apt-get dist-upgrade. So six years now.

kolev 13y ago

Yes, same experience. Unfortunately, for the peace of mind, you should always rebuild - in-place upgrades for Desktop never work smoothly.

kintamanimatt 13y ago
I've only ever had one hose my system but that's because I locked the screen while the upgrade was in progress. The upgrade never finished because I couldn't unlock and answer any of its conflict resolution questions. Today's upgrade was pretty smooth and uneventful.
asveikau 13y ago
I guess I should stop using my Debian machines where I did an install in previous decades (decades, plural) and copied the setup from hard drive to hard drive across several physical machine rebuilds. Up to now I had no idea that this never works smoothly.
- kolev 13y ago
  Debian != Ubuntu
  - asveikau 13y ago
    So?
    - kolev 13y ago
      We're talking about Ubuntu here - that was my point. I've been upgrading Ubuntu Desktop for years (a decade, singular) and I've always been struggling - especially if I ventured to install an alpha and then keep upgrading that. Compared to OS X, on which I always upgrade to the first Developer Preview and keep upgrading on, although OS X comes with problems, too, the GM usually fixes it all up. With Ubuntu, it's best to script your environment and rebuild clean. At least my experience. Garbage always piles up otherwise!