Fresh install?

[Derek Broughton]

Paul Lemmons wrote:

> There is something that has been bugging me for several years. While
> fairly new to Ubuntu I have been using Linux as my primary OS since
> Fedora core 2. The thing that has been a irritation for all of that time
> is the repeated recommendation to do a "Clean Install" instead of an
> upgrade.

Where?  Not here.  There'll always be some people who swim against the flow,
but Debian-based distros aren't intended to be installed clean with every
release.

> Am I the only one with such a positive experience with the upgrade
> process? Do more of you upgrade or rebuild? 

I generally upgrade, but I'm typically buying either a new system, or at
least a new drive, every third release or so, and then they get fresh
installs.

> 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?
 
Because you can?  With Windows, I _couldn't_ do that.  With Linux, I can. 
Install the base system, copy the old /home over it.  Install the packages
from /etc/apt/installed.txt (not a stock file - I create that), copy /etc
& /var from the old system.  Done.
-- 
derek