Ubuntu and its derivatives (Lubuntu, Xubuntu etc.) should really consider adding cross-distribution installation/upgrade feature in Ubiquity

[Xen]

Βασίλης Κατσαρέλιας schreef op 02-02-2018 17:08:

> Anyway, I just want Ubiquity to feature a cross-distribution 
> upgrade/transfer feature. (e.g. upgrade from Ubuntu 14.04 to Lubuntu 
> 16.04, upgrade from Kubuntu 16.04 to Xubuntu 17.10)

Honestly this is more a place for an on-system upgrade mechanism as it 
already exists, rather than something that would, I think, place undue 
burden on Ubiquity.

I think as it stands Ubiquity would need work on dealing with failure 
cases more elegantly before you introduced something that would invite 
more failure cases.

What Colin says is correct about not formatting your root partition, 
although it might not be so clear to a user, because it is a rather 
"smallish" choice somewhere.

What Ralph says is also correct; backing up user data (The contents of 
your own home directory) can hardly be considered "awful" in the full 
light of things.

So if anything, also speaking as an outsider, this would need to be 
improved in a "do-full-upgrade" tool however it would be near impossible 
to cater to all cross-variant upgrade situations.

So Βασίλης, I hope you realize that you would get a huge matrix of what 
needs to change where, ie.

                    Kubuntu 16.04        Lubuntu 14.04

Xubuntu 17.10            X                     X

And that it would need a lot of work to separate everything.




Βασίλης, do you really think that making a backup of your /home/user 
directory is not a lot simpler?

I think what you are suggesting would be a task not even a commercial 
entity, or a fully commercial vendor would be happy in undertaking.

Although technically feasible, in practice it would involve _first 
changing to your desired flavour_ and THEN upgrading.

Or vice versa, but not all at the same time.

Then the problem becomes simple: how do we change an existing system to 
a different flavour?

I am not sure this is supported, but "cross-distribution upgrade" is 
clearly not the first goal.

If, on the other hand, you just want to reinstall your system, then 
Colin's suggestion would suffice, but it is not so clear the installer 
would do that.

So I think that in practice the only real enhancement that would be 
quickly needed would be to structure Ubiquity such that this option is 
evident to users.

As to your upgrade, Βασίλης, I am happy you got it done.

Regards,