Fresh install?

[Nils Kassube]

Paul Lemmons wrote:
> Am I the only one with such a positive experience with the upgrade
> process? 

No, you are not alone. Since using Kubuntu I have always upgraded instead 
of a fresh install. And for the friends I support, I have also done 
upgrades only. Prior to Kubuntu I was using SUSE. As I had many problems 
with upgrades back then, I usually did a fresh install. Maybe SUSE works 
better with upgrades nowadays, but I will not return to SUSE, so I will 
not try it.

> Why the constant advice to  
> backup your system, remember all of the apps you installed and then
> trash it to install clean and restore apps and files with a prayer that
> you did not miss anything?

The advice to backup the system is never bad. But the advice of a clean 
install is not necessarily good for *Ubuntu systems, IMHO. Probably those 
who suggest a clean install never tried to upgrade. Or they had some bad 
experience. I would always suggest to at least try an upgrade first. If 
that really fails there is still the option to do a clean install. In my 
experience upgrades always succeeded, so it was less time consuming than 
fresh installs.


Nils